SUTIN WANNABOVORN
Associated Press
October 19, 2007 at 5:39 AM EDT
Link to the original article on the Globe and Mail

Bangkok, Thailand — A Canadian schoolteacher suspected of sexually abusing boys was arrested in rural Thailand on Friday after an international manhunt that relied on digitally unscrambled photos and tips from the public.

“Bingo! We’ve got him,” said police Major-General Wimol Powintaras.

Handcuffed, with a blue shirt draped over his head, 32-year-old Christopher Paul Neil from Maple Ridge, B.C., did not comment to reporters as officers led him into the national police headquarters in Bangkok, where a news conference was held later in the day.

Mr. Neil was found in the province of Nakhon Ratchasima, where police said he had been hiding in the town of a Thai friend believed to have arranged some of his alleged sexual liaisons with boys.

He was to be extradited to Canada after being prosecuted in Thailand, said police spokesman Pongsapat Pongjaren.

Canada — which can prosecute its citizens for child sex crimes committed abroad, but has rarely done so — has not said if it plans to seek Neil’s extradition.

“We are aware an arrest has been made and we will offer consular services as necessary,” a spokesman for the Canadian embassy in Bangkok said.

Cambodia and Vietnam might also want to question him. (more…)