Thai police name pedophile suspect

PARIS, France (AP) -- First Interpol unmasked his face. Now it knows his name.

The international police organization, working off tips from people who responded to a global appeal for help, said Monday it has identified a suspected pedophile shown in Internet photos abusing young boys.

The man, whose face initially was disguised behind a digitalized swirl, is now thought to be on the run in Thailand, Interpol said. He is said to be an English teacher at a school in South Korea.

While Interpol declined to release the suspect's name, police in Thailand said a 32-year-old Canadian named Christopher Paul Neil is the person sought.

"We believe he is still in Thailand and we are now collecting information from neighboring countries where he committed crimes of pedophilia so we can issue an arrest warrant for him," Thai police Col. Apichart Suribunya said. Watch how the search is narrowing »

The Canadian Embassy in Bangkok declined to comment.

The man was allegedly shown sexually abusing 12 young Vietnamese and Cambodian boys, apparently ranging in age from 6 to early teens, in about 200 photographs posted on the Internet. Using techniques that neither they nor Interpol would discuss, German police recreated an image of the man's face and released four reconstructed photos of him last week.

Interpol said more than 350 people then supplied tips to authorities worldwide. Officials are still collecting and analyzing evidence to bring charges against the man if he is arrested, it said.

Interpol went public after efforts to track down the man through its network ran dry. Ronald K. Noble, Interpol's secretary-general, credited "remarkable progress" following the public response to its appeal for help on October 8.

Interpol said the man flew from Seoul, South Korea, to Bangkok, Thailand, last Thursday, with security cameras documenting his arrival at Thai immigration.

"Thailand is at the center of an international manhunt, and authorities in the country, in cooperation with Interpol and police around the world, are hunting him down," Noble said.

Interpol declined any further comment Monday beyond its statement.

Interpol provided two new photos of the suspect Monday. One, taken by Thai immigration officials upon his arrival in Bangkok, showed him seemingly older, with close-cropped hair and wearing glasses. The other, which Interpol said was provided by an informant, was a simple head shot of the man, smiling and ruddy-faced.

Interpol's decision to release the reconstructed photos was seen as being somewhat risky because it could have tipped off criminals to techniques police have at their disposal and prompted them to better hide their identities.

One of the pictures released last week and posted on Interpol's Web site showed the suspect with uncombed short brown hair. Another showed him with a hairy chest.

The photos date from before December 2004, when they were found on the Internet, Anders Persson, a Swedish police officer assigned to Interpol's human trafficking unit, said last week. Some were digitally stamped as having been taken in 2002 and 2003, he said.

Interpol asked people who recognized the suspect or who have other information to contact police or the Interpol bureau in their country. It urged them not to take any direct action.

Now, with the suspect at large, "we must again enlist the public's support," Noble said.

The boys believed to have been abused have not been located, Persson said. E-mail to a friend

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