Monday, 2 June 2008

Trial of suspected Canadian pedophile scheduled to start Monday

Chaiwat Subprasom/ReutersCanadian Christopher Paul Neil sits inside a detention cell of the Bangkok Criminal Court earlier this year

Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, June 01, 2008

BANGKOK -- Christopher Neil, the Canadian arrested and charged with the sexual abuse of two Thai boys is scheduled to go on trial Monday.

Mr. Neil was arrested in rural Thailand in October following a global manhunt. He has pleaded not guilty to four charges of molesting and distributing pornographic images of two Thai boys.

Detectives in various countries had been trying to track down the 32-year-old native of Maple Ridge, B.C. since German police discovered photographs on the Internet three years ago of a man sexually abusing 12 boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.

In the photos, the man's face had been scrambled with a digital swirling pattern to conceal his identity. But German police computer experts managed to unravel the disguise. Interpol subsequently issued an unprecedented worldwide appeal through the Internet for information.

If found guilty, Mr. Neil could spend up to 20 years in jail.

No comments: