LYON, France – Following the issuance of a national arrest warrant by Thai authorities for Christopher Paul NEIL, INTERPOL today published an international wanted persons notice international wanted persons notice (Red Notice) for the Canadian national, shown sexually abusing children in a series of photographs posted on the Internet.
The Royal Thai Police issued the arrest warrant after a 17-year-old Thai boy provided a statement in which he confirmed that 32-year-old NEIL had sexually molested him several years ago. The teenager was identified as a potential victim and then located by the Royal Thai Police following close collaboration with INTERPOL’s office in Bangkok and INTERPOL headquarters.
'INTERPOL wishes to acknowledge the extraordinary investigative work done by the Royal Thai Police and to thank this particularly courageous victim for providing Thai authorities with a basis to issue an arrest warrant for NEIL,' said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.
NEIL was last seen in Bangkok, having flown there on 11 October from South Korea, where he had been working as an English-language teacher. The Royal Thai Police are searching for NEIL and law enforcement in neighbouring countries already on alert can now use the INTERPOL Red Notice as a basis for NEIL’s provisional arrest.
'The great response from the public and from the INTERPOL National Central Bureaus in the region concerned, Canada and Germany, coupled with the swift actions of the Royal Thai Police, have enabled the global law enforcement community to move one step closer to bringing this sexual predator to justice.
'INTERPOL decided to launch this appeal to help police in our member countries to identify ‘Vico’ and to protect the public from a sexual predator. The results achieved so far have shown time and time again that INTERPOL as a global organization can help police at the local, regional and national level to keep their citizens safe,' added Mr Noble.
Photographs of the Thai victim were part of a series of around 200 pictures uploaded to the Internet in 2004 which included the so-called Operation Vico images.
The first lead which would ultimately enable police to identify Christopher Paul NEIL as the man in the Vico images came just 24 hours after INTERPOL launched its appeal to identify the unknown offender. In the following days, four other people located in Asia, the Americas and Europe independently named NEIL as a potential match.
An INTERPOL Red Notice seeks the arrest or provisional arrest of a wanted person with a view to extradition.