Canadian paedophile suspect Christopher Paul Neil, focus of a global hunt that ended in rural Thailand today, will be charged with molesting underage children after being tracked down through his boyfriend's phone.
Christopher Paul Neil pictured at a police press conference today
Thai police appealed for more victims to come forward after nabbing Neil at a rented house. Neil is also accused of raping young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia after being unmasked by a unique Internet appeal.
"From pictures on the Internet, there were five to seven children under age 10 who have been abused by him, including one girl," Deputy National Police Chief Wongkot Maneerin told a packed news conference in Bangkok.
Neil (32) caught in the northeast Thai province of Nakhon Ratchasima, 250 km from Bangkok and well off the normal tourist trail, refused to answer reporters' questions.
Police said Neil, who arrived in handcuffs at national police headquarters, his head covered by a blue T-shirt, had confirmed his identity to investigators but said nothing else.
Neil was no stranger to Thailand, having once taught in a Bangkok language school, but his hiding place was revealed by a trace on the mobile phone of his 25-year-old Thai boyfriend, identified by transvestites in the beach town of Pattaya.
"They went together to different provinces, probably on the run, and the last call made was from Nakhon Ratchasima. So I sent my men there," tourist police chief Chuchart Suwannakom said.
Thai police issued a warrant for Neil's arrest yesterday, a week after he fled South Korea, after two Thai teenagers accused him of paying for oral sex when they were nine and 14.
Neil could face up to 20 years in jail if convicted in Thailand. Mr Wongkot said he would be prosecuted in Bangkok, but left open the possibility he could be extradited once he had served his sentence.
"He has to be prosecuted in Thailand first," he said.
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 said it also wanted to question Neil and would charge him if police there could put a case together.
Detectives in various countries had been trying to track Neil down since German police discovered photographs on the Internet three years ago of a man sexually abusing 12 boys in Vietnam and Cambodia. His face had been scrambled with a digital swirling pattern, but German police computer experts managed to unravel the "Swirly Face" disguise and Interpol issued an unprecedented worldwide appeal through the Internet for information on who the man was.
More than 350 people came forward and Neil was identified by five sources from three different continents, Interpol said.