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Published on October 20, 2007

Just 12 hours after obtaining an arrest warrant, police yesterday arrested much-wanted Canadian paedophile suspect Christopher Paul Neil at a house in Nakhon Ratchasima province.

Neil did not resist arrest. Asked by arresting officers about his identity, he simply said "Yes".

Police said later Neil had not given any other information apart from saying "I knew this day would come" and "I need a lawyer", before being driven to Bangkok and shown to the media at the Royal Thai Police compound in the afternoon.

Officers said they were looking for two other Thai men whose pictures were found on Neil's computer. They suspect the pair may have been molested by the suspect when they were underage boys.

Neil, 32, has been charged with child molestation, restraint of a person's freedom, and depriving a child of parental care.

Deputy police chief General Wongkot Maneerin alleged that Neil had orgies with up to seven boys at a time on many occasions and sometimes had sex with girls. The nationalities of the boys included Vietnamese, Laotian, Burmese, Cambodian and Thai.

Wongkot called on other victims to come forward. He said police would get Neil to undergo a blood test for Aids, although that would depend on his cooperation.

He said the 18-year-old Thai man who came forward to the police as the first local sex victim of Neil, was actually only 14. Neil was accused of first violating the boy on October 14, 2003, at his apartment in Bangkok's Din Daeng area when the boy was nine years old.

Neil is now in custody at the Children, Juveniles and Women Division, without a lawyer representing him as of yet. The initial authority to detain him lasts 48 hours and he is expected to be taken to the Criminal Court - possibly today - for consideration about further detention.

Pol Lt-Colonel Phatthana Nutchanart, of the Tourist Police, revealed that officers had tracked Neil initially from "street information" gained in the Pattaya area in Chon Buri, where they learnt that Neil had dated a transvestite called "Oam" for two years before he last departed Thailand for South Korea.

After learning the transvestite's home province was Chaiyaphum, a police team went there but found no trace of them. Police later obtained Oam's mobile phone number and call records and found he had called a relative in Nakhon Ratchasima - where Neil and Oam were found yesterday.

The world-wide search for Neil began just 10 days ago with a ground-breaking appeal from Interpol for public help to track down a man seen in 200 photos posted on the Internet. The photos appeared to show him abusing a dozen young boys.

The man's face had been digitally swirled, but German computer experts reconstructed the images, which Interpol then posted on its website along with its call for assistance.

The operation was code-named "Vico" because the images were believed to have been taken in Vietnam and Cambodia in 2002 or 2003.

More than 300 people replied to Interpol's call, with five people on three continents offering critical information, the agency said in a statement on its website.

"The fact that we went to the public was the breakthrough," Interpol detective Mick Moran told AFP. "We are absolutely delighted this guy has been arrested."

Neil was found in a one-storey rented house in Nakhon Ratchasima, around 300 kilometres northeast of Bangkok, where he was with the Thai transvestite, police said. There were conflicting reports about Oam's age, that he was 25 or 20.

Police gave no details about Neil's relationship with his companion.

General Wongkot said Neil could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted over accusations he abused a nine-year-old boy in Bangkok four years ago.

If any other countries want to prosecute him, he could be extradited after serving any prison time received in Thailand, if found guilty here, Wongkut said.

Neil had been teaching English at a school in Seoul, where South Korean police are also investigating his activities. He flew to Bangkok on October 11, when security cameras documented his arrival at the airport.

Neil has visited Thailand six times since 2000. In 2003 he tried and failed to get a job teaching at an international school in Bangkok, according to Thai officials.

Interpol says Neil is from suburban Vancouver, where Canadian media reported that his mother and a sibling still live.

Neil once studied at a seminary, hoping to become a priest, but was eventually shunned by his teachers, who felt he lacked the moral backbone for the task, according to reports.

An official at the Bangkok school where Neil tried to get a teaching job described him as an introvert, who was not hired because he had difficulty cooperating with school officials and other teachers. The school said no complaints were filed regarding any abusive behaviour.

The Nation, AFP