More sex-crimes charges were filed on Wednesday against a suspected Canadian paedophile captured last week following a global manhunt, Thai police said.
Christopher Paul Neil (32) was arrested in Thailand on Friday following a worldwide search led by Interpol to track down a man seen in 200 internet photos abusing a dozen Asian boys.
Neil, who already faces charges of molesting a nine-year-old Thai boy in 2003, was also charged with kidnapping and molesting a minor following another complaint by a 19 year-old Thai boy that he too was abused by Neil in 2003.
”There are two additional charges against the suspect,” police Major General Wimol Powintara said.
If convicted, the former teacher could face up to 40 years in prison on all charges.
The 19-year-old boy told police he was abused in 2003 after he was lured to Neil’s apartment to play video games, police Lieutenant General Wimon Pao-In said on Tuesday.
The alleged victim, then 14, went to Neil’s apartment twice and was paid 500 baht ($15) for each visit, Wimon said. He said that on his third visit, he was paid 1 000 baht and was sexually abused.
Canadian broadcaster CTV has reported that Neil denied the sex-abuse allegations against him, saying in a jailhouse interview that he had a ”good defence”. He also said he did not want to be extradited to Canada.
On Saturday, a Thai court granted a police request to extend Neil’s detention in a Bangkok prison by at least 12 days.
The suspect, who is from a suburb of Vancouver, flew to Bangkok from South Korea on October 11, when security cameras documented his arrival at the airport.
He was found on October 19 in Thailand’s third-largest city of Nakhon Ratchasima, about 300km north-east of the capital.
Neil was seen in 200 internet photos abusing a dozen young Asian boys, but his face had been digitally swirled in the incriminating pictures.
German computer experts were able to reconstruct the images, which Interpol then posted on its website along with its public appeal for help.
The operation was codenamed ”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 appeal, with five people on three continents offering critical information, the agency said. — AFP
