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.

Mr. Neil’s family could not be reached for comment early Friday. They said earlier they were devastated and shocked by the allegations. They had also called on him to surrender to police.

Mr. Neil was found after an unusual public appeal by Interpol. The international police agency released reconstructed Internet photos of a man said to be abusing Asian boys in a bid to identify a suspect, receiving hundreds of tips as a result.

Maj.-Gen. Wimol said police rushed to the northeastern province Thursday night after receiving credible information that Mr. Neil was there. Residents said they had spotted the Canadian near the home of the Thai friend, Maj.-Gen. Wimol said.

Mr. Neil lived in Thailand from 2002 to early 2004, police said.

Thai authorities issued an arrest warrant Thursday for Mr. Neil after determining that he may have sexually abused boys in Thailand, in addition to a dozen Cambodian and Vietnamese boys, some as young as 6, whom Interpol suspects he abused.

The Thai arrest warrant was based on the testimony of one boy, who said he was lured to Mr. Neil’s apartment in Bangkok by a Thai man, Maj.-Gen. Wimol said Thursday.

The boy was one of three Thai youths, aged 9, 13 and 14 at the time, who contacted police Wednesday after seeing Mr. Neil’s photograph on television. They claimed he had paid them to perform oral sex on him in 2003, Maj-Gen. Wimol said earlier, adding that the Canadian allegedly also had sex with at least one other under-aged male.

The boys said the suspect showed them pornographic images on his computer at his apartment in Bangkok, and paid them each 500 baht to 1,000 baht, worth $16 to $32, Maj.-Gen. Wimol said.

Mr. Neil has taught at various schools in Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam since at least 2000.

He suddenly left his most recent teaching job in South Korea last week on a one-way ticket for Thailand as investigators closed in on his identity. Authorities said cameras at the immigration counter captured his image as he arrived at Bangkok’s international airport.

The hunt for Mr. Neil began three years ago when German police discovered about 200 online photographs of a man sexually abusing children. The man’s face was digitally obscured, but German police were able to reconstruct a recognizable image and Interpol circulated those images last week.

More clues about the suspect’s background emerged with the discovery of a Web page on the social networking site MySpace that Interpol officials believe was kept by Mr. Neil.

“Been kicking around Asia for the past five years, teaching mainly and finding other forms of mischief,” reads the profile, which describes him as “5 feet, 11 inches tall, slim and slender.”

“I love teaching, can’t get enough of it really,” the entry says, going on to describe his passion for drama, musicals and karaoke.

Before teaching in Asia, Mr. Neil had worked as a chaplain in Canada, counselling teens.

Canadian authorities had said they would seek his extradition. Canada has sex tourism laws allowing prosecution for crimes committed abroad.

With files from Canadian Press and Reuters