Christopher Paul Neil
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO These images made available by Interpol in Paris, Oct. 8, 2007 show the face of Canadian schoolteacher Christopher Paul Neil, who has served five years in a Thai prison for sexually abusing a 9-year-old boy. German specialists 'unswirled' this image Neil posted of himself on the Internet.
VANCOUVER—RCMP with B.C.’s Child Exploitation Unit say they won’t recommend sex tourism charges against a convicted pedophile who was arrested after returning home from five years in a Thailand prison.
Christopher Neil on Monday made his first appearance in a Vancouver-area court after being released from a Thai prison. He won’t know if he’ll be released or under what conditions until Wednesday, when a Crown lawyer is expected to ask a judge for limits to be placed on his freedom.
The 37-year-old B.C. man doesn’t face any charges in Canada, but police are concerned he is at risk of committing sexual offences against minors.
He was sentenced for sexually assaulting a young boy after an international manhunt found he digitally disguised his face in images of abuse posted online.
Police arrested Neil when he arrived at Vancouver’s airport on Friday, taking him to a Richmond, B.C. jail cell.
Cpl. Mat Van Laer says that while there are laws aimed at prosecuting Canadians who commit crimes out of the country, they don’t apply to Neil who has already served time for his offence.
“It’s a little bit like this commonly known double-jeopardy issue,” he said Sunday.
“We’re not going to be convicting someone for a similar crime that (they’ve) been convicted of before, elsewhere. He spent a significant amount of time in a Thailand prison for the crime that he’s committed.
“That’s why we’re not engaging a sex tourism investigation.”
Neil served his time at the Bangkok Remain Prison, where he shared a cell 12 metres by five metres with 60 other men.
One of them was Australian writer Harry Nicolaides, who has spoken extensively about his three-year sentence for criticizing the Thai royal family.
Nicolaides said he, Neil and two other foreigners became friends because they were forced to rely on each other for survival.
Neil and Nicolaides “had a long conversation about legal strategies — we shared the same Thai lawyer — and handling the media,” Nicolaides wrote in an Australian magazine after his release.
The prisoners washed in long troughs of water, which often ran out after the first few hundred cleaned themselves. Until he could get family to send food, Nicolaides ate the clumped rice and “murky soup” fed to the others.
Neil himself has not spoken about his prison life and refused to speak to an Associated Press reporter who visited him in Bangkok.
“The guards see you as the new meat,” Rosalind Prober, a founder of the Beyond Borders, told the Star. Prober’s activism against global child prostitution led to the 1996 sex tourism legislation called Prober’s Amendment.
“They’ll try to get money off of you — this many bhat for a steak. You get it. The next time, you don’t.”
She said one Canadian imprisoned in a Thai jail who was not guilty told her the bribery and being “preyed upon was worse than the conditions. They milk you for everything, cigarettes, food, magazines.”
It’s expected the judge will use Section 810.1 of the Criminal Code to determine conditions of Neil’s release.
Neil’s brother lives in Canada, but Laer said it wasn’t clear on his arrest where the man would be living on his return. He currently has no fixed address, although he once lived in Maple Ridge, B.C.
Neil became known as Swirl Face owing to the elaborate technical method he used to hide his face online. But after German computer experts cracked the code, his image was revealed and circulated around the world.
Interpol led an international manhunt that found him living in Korea, and teaching English. He fled to Thailand, where he was apprehended.
Laer said Thai authorities released Neil earlier than anticipated, but noted that is not unusual and regularly occurs in Canada as well.
Officials collaborated with the federal government, Passport Canada, and the Canadian Border Services Agency to return Neil to B.C.
“It was no surprise for us to get the phone call and at the same time, it was no surprise for Mr. Neil to be greeted at the airport by Canadian authorities,” Laer said.
Christopher Neil on Monday made his first appearance in a Vancouver-area court after being released from a Thai prison. He won’t know if he’ll be released or under what conditions until Wednesday, when a Crown lawyer is expected to ask a judge for limits to be placed on his freedom.
The 37-year-old B.C. man doesn’t face any charges in Canada, but police are concerned he is at risk of committing sexual offences against minors.
He was sentenced for sexually assaulting a young boy after an international manhunt found he digitally disguised his face in images of abuse posted online.
Police arrested Neil when he arrived at Vancouver’s airport on Friday, taking him to a Richmond, B.C. jail cell.
Cpl. Mat Van Laer says that while there are laws aimed at prosecuting Canadians who commit crimes out of the country, they don’t apply to Neil who has already served time for his offence.
“It’s a little bit like this commonly known double-jeopardy issue,” he said Sunday.
“We’re not going to be convicting someone for a similar crime that (they’ve) been convicted of before, elsewhere. He spent a significant amount of time in a Thailand prison for the crime that he’s committed.
“That’s why we’re not engaging a sex tourism investigation.”
Neil served his time at the Bangkok Remain Prison, where he shared a cell 12 metres by five metres with 60 other men.
One of them was Australian writer Harry Nicolaides, who has spoken extensively about his three-year sentence for criticizing the Thai royal family.
Nicolaides said he, Neil and two other foreigners became friends because they were forced to rely on each other for survival.
Neil and Nicolaides “had a long conversation about legal strategies — we shared the same Thai lawyer — and handling the media,” Nicolaides wrote in an Australian magazine after his release.
The prisoners washed in long troughs of water, which often ran out after the first few hundred cleaned themselves. Until he could get family to send food, Nicolaides ate the clumped rice and “murky soup” fed to the others.
Neil himself has not spoken about his prison life and refused to speak to an Associated Press reporter who visited him in Bangkok.
“The guards see you as the new meat,” Rosalind Prober, a founder of the Beyond Borders, told the Star. Prober’s activism against global child prostitution led to the 1996 sex tourism legislation called Prober’s Amendment.
“They’ll try to get money off of you — this many bhat for a steak. You get it. The next time, you don’t.”
She said one Canadian imprisoned in a Thai jail who was not guilty told her the bribery and being “preyed upon was worse than the conditions. They milk you for everything, cigarettes, food, magazines.”
It’s expected the judge will use Section 810.1 of the Criminal Code to determine conditions of Neil’s release.
Neil’s brother lives in Canada, but Laer said it wasn’t clear on his arrest where the man would be living on his return. He currently has no fixed address, although he once lived in Maple Ridge, B.C.
Neil became known as Swirl Face owing to the elaborate technical method he used to hide his face online. But after German computer experts cracked the code, his image was revealed and circulated around the world.
Interpol led an international manhunt that found him living in Korea, and teaching English. He fled to Thailand, where he was apprehended.
Laer said Thai authorities released Neil earlier than anticipated, but noted that is not unusual and regularly occurs in Canada as well.
Officials collaborated with the federal government, Passport Canada, and the Canadian Border Services Agency to return Neil to B.C.
“It was no surprise for us to get the phone call and at the same time, it was no surprise for Mr. Neil to be greeted at the airport by Canadian authorities,” Laer said.
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