Wayne Nelson Corliss is arrested by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Union City, N.J. early Thursday. Handout/ReutersBecky Rynor and Amy Husser
Canwest News Service
Image specialists with the sex crimes and child exploitation unit of the Toronto police force helped Interpol in its worldwide hunt for the alleged pedophile eventually picked up in New Jersey Thursday.
"Originally there was a group of photos that Norway provided, then additional photographs have been identified as matching to this offender," said Det. Sgt. Kim Scanlan, head of the unit. "We assisted in linking photos to the offender."
Wayne Nelson Corliss, 59, of Union City, N.J., was arrested early Thursday, just 48 hours after Interpol appealed to the international community for help in a case dubbed "Operation Ident."
Corliss is suspected of sexually abusing young boys from Southeast Asia, all believed to be between six and 10 years of age.
Interpol said the unusual global appeal drew almost 250,000 visits to its website, more than 10 times the usual daily average. The tips that led to Corliss's arrest came from three individuals living in the United States.
In building a case against Corliss, however, police and prosecutors need airtight evidence, and that's where expertise such as Toronto's comes into play.
According to Scanlan, the specialized Toronto police unit provided Interpol with the services of an image analysis specialist.
"He would have examined photographic evidence - sometimes it's videos - for clues that will help determine either the offender or the location of the offence," Scanlan said, carefully sticking to generalities so as not to jeopardize the Corliss investigation.
"Sometimes it's the children" in the photo that can point to an offender, she explained.
"Sometimes it's a voice you may hear. Maybe it's an accent or a dialect or something in a picture; a certain product or an item. It will belong to an area or a country that helps you determine where the offences are taking place."
"Any photograph can provide so many clues."
Scanlan said there is an online network of image analyst specialists from around the world who work for law enforcement agencies.
"They work together to help further investigations by extracting information - anything - from crime scene photos. When one country isn't successful, they bring other countries on board. That's how Toronto came on board."
"The bottom line is we all want to identify and rescue kids," she said. "That's the No. 1 goal, so working together only makes sense."
The search for Corliss began in 2006 when Norwegian police seized about 100 photos that allegedly depicted him engaging in sex acts with young boys. The images were part of a larger series of 800 photos that were connected to Corliss because they included similar locations and victims.
On Tuesday, Interpol posted online six photos depicting a white-haired man in his 40s or 50s.
The move followed two years of fruitless investigation that brought the international law enforcement organization no closer to identifying the man's identity, location or nationality.
This is only the second time Interpol has issued a call for public assistance to track down a suspected pedophile. Canadian Christopher Neil, 32, was arrested last October in Thailand after police reversed a swirled Internet photo of a man's face. The photos depicted a man allegedly sexually abusing boys from Cambodia and Vietnam.
The Maple Ridge, B.C., man has pleaded not guilty to four charges of molesting and distributing pornographic images of two Thai boys. His next court appearance is scheduled for June. 2.
Unlike the previous case, the photos that led to Corliss's arrest were not altered to hide the suspect's face.
Canwest News Service
Image specialists with the sex crimes and child exploitation unit of the Toronto police force helped Interpol in its worldwide hunt for the alleged pedophile eventually picked up in New Jersey Thursday.
"Originally there was a group of photos that Norway provided, then additional photographs have been identified as matching to this offender," said Det. Sgt. Kim Scanlan, head of the unit. "We assisted in linking photos to the offender."
Wayne Nelson Corliss, 59, of Union City, N.J., was arrested early Thursday, just 48 hours after Interpol appealed to the international community for help in a case dubbed "Operation Ident."
Corliss is suspected of sexually abusing young boys from Southeast Asia, all believed to be between six and 10 years of age.
Interpol said the unusual global appeal drew almost 250,000 visits to its website, more than 10 times the usual daily average. The tips that led to Corliss's arrest came from three individuals living in the United States.
In building a case against Corliss, however, police and prosecutors need airtight evidence, and that's where expertise such as Toronto's comes into play.
According to Scanlan, the specialized Toronto police unit provided Interpol with the services of an image analysis specialist.
"He would have examined photographic evidence - sometimes it's videos - for clues that will help determine either the offender or the location of the offence," Scanlan said, carefully sticking to generalities so as not to jeopardize the Corliss investigation.
"Sometimes it's the children" in the photo that can point to an offender, she explained.
"Sometimes it's a voice you may hear. Maybe it's an accent or a dialect or something in a picture; a certain product or an item. It will belong to an area or a country that helps you determine where the offences are taking place."
"Any photograph can provide so many clues."
Scanlan said there is an online network of image analyst specialists from around the world who work for law enforcement agencies.
"They work together to help further investigations by extracting information - anything - from crime scene photos. When one country isn't successful, they bring other countries on board. That's how Toronto came on board."
"The bottom line is we all want to identify and rescue kids," she said. "That's the No. 1 goal, so working together only makes sense."
The search for Corliss began in 2006 when Norwegian police seized about 100 photos that allegedly depicted him engaging in sex acts with young boys. The images were part of a larger series of 800 photos that were connected to Corliss because they included similar locations and victims.
On Tuesday, Interpol posted online six photos depicting a white-haired man in his 40s or 50s.
The move followed two years of fruitless investigation that brought the international law enforcement organization no closer to identifying the man's identity, location or nationality.
This is only the second time Interpol has issued a call for public assistance to track down a suspected pedophile. Canadian Christopher Neil, 32, was arrested last October in Thailand after police reversed a swirled Internet photo of a man's face. The photos depicted a man allegedly sexually abusing boys from Cambodia and Vietnam.
The Maple Ridge, B.C., man has pleaded not guilty to four charges of molesting and distributing pornographic images of two Thai boys. His next court appearance is scheduled for June. 2.
Unlike the previous case, the photos that led to Corliss's arrest were not altered to hide the suspect's face.
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