Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:02am EDT
Canadian pedophile suspect Christopher Paul Neil, accused of raping young boys in Vietnam & Cambodia & unmasked by a unique Interpol Internet appeal, was arrested in Thailand on Friday, police said.
After a nationwide manhunt, Neil, 32, was arrested in the early hours of the morning in countryside northeast of Bangkok, a region well off the normal foreign tourist trail.
Police issued a warrant for his arrest on Thursday, a week since Neil fled South Korea to Thailand, after 2 Thai teenagers accused him of paying for oral sex when they were 9 & 14, grounds for prosecution under Thai law.
Neil would be presented for questioning by reporters at national police headquarters in Bangkok later on Friday, but details of how he was hunted down remained sketchy.
"My officers arrested him in the countryside in Nakhon Ratchasima this morning," tourist police chief Chuchart Suwannakom told Reuters, referring to a province 250 km (150 miles) northeast of the Thai capital.
"I can't give you more details at the moment," he added.
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 raping 12 boys in Vietnam & Cambodia.
Neil was identified after his digitally swirled face in Internet photographs of child sex abuse was unscrambled by German police computer experts & Interpol, for the 1st time, issued a worldwide appeal through the Internet for identification.
He could face up to 20 years in jail if convicted in Thailand, where he once taught at an English language school.
Neil abruptly left South Korea, where he was teaching, after Interpol broadcast his photograph & flew to Thailand, where border posts were put on alert in case he tried to sneak out again.
Border guards in Thailand's neighbors had also been placed on alert.
After a nationwide manhunt, Neil, 32, was arrested in the early hours of the morning in countryside northeast of Bangkok, a region well off the normal foreign tourist trail.
Police issued a warrant for his arrest on Thursday, a week since Neil fled South Korea to Thailand, after 2 Thai teenagers accused him of paying for oral sex when they were 9 & 14, grounds for prosecution under Thai law.
Neil would be presented for questioning by reporters at national police headquarters in Bangkok later on Friday, but details of how he was hunted down remained sketchy.
"My officers arrested him in the countryside in Nakhon Ratchasima this morning," tourist police chief Chuchart Suwannakom told Reuters, referring to a province 250 km (150 miles) northeast of the Thai capital.
"I can't give you more details at the moment," he added.
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 raping 12 boys in Vietnam & Cambodia.
Neil was identified after his digitally swirled face in Internet photographs of child sex abuse was unscrambled by German police computer experts & Interpol, for the 1st time, issued a worldwide appeal through the Internet for identification.
He could face up to 20 years in jail if convicted in Thailand, where he once taught at an English language school.
Neil abruptly left South Korea, where he was teaching, after Interpol broadcast his photograph & flew to Thailand, where border posts were put on alert in case he tried to sneak out again.
Border guards in Thailand's neighbors had also been placed on alert.