Predator From Canada: Christopher Paul Neil

BANGKOK (AFP) - Thai police arrested a suspected Canadian paedophile on Friday after a global manhunt launched when computer experts unscrambled digital photos allegedly showing him having sex with young boys.

Christopher Paul Neil, a 32-year-old schoolteacher, was nabbed in Thailand's third-largest city Nakhon Ratchasima following an unprecedented appeal from international police organisation Interpol for public help in finding him.

He was brought in handcuffs to the national police headquarters in Bangkok for questioning, but made no comments as he arrived.

He entered the building wearing sandals, a white T-shirt, and black nylon running pants, but kept a blue shirt over his head to hide his face from dozens of waiting journalists.

Neil had been tracked down to Thailand after hundreds of people around the world responded to Interpol's appeal for help.

"The fact that we went to the public was the breakthrough," Interpol detective Mick Moran told AFP.

"We are absolutely delighted that this guy has been arrested," he added.

Thai police Major General Wimon Pao-in told AFP that Neil had been found in Nakhon Ratchasima, around 300 kilometres (200 miles) northeast of Bangkok.

Neil is accused by Interpol of sexually assaulting 12 boys and posting 200 pictures of the crimes on the Internet. He faces charges in Thailand of sexually abusing a nine-year-old boy in 2003.

Wimon said he would be prosecuted first in Thailand, but that Interpol could report additional charges to Thai police with a view to his extradition.

The international police agency believes many of the pictures posted on the Internet show him raping boys in Vietnam and Cambodia, both countries with reputations as destinations for sex tourism.

Although Neil's face had been digitally swirled to mask his identity in the photos, a special crimes unit in Germany was able to reconstruct the images, providing the breakthrough to identify him.

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, and in 2003 had tried and failed to get a job teaching at an international school in Bangkok, according to Thai officials.

Canadian media said Neil was from suburban Vancouver, where 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 the man 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.

Interpol, based in Lyon, France, made a groundbreaking appeal for help from the public in tracking him down.

About 350 people reportedly responded to a request for assistance on Interpol's website, where the agency posted the reconstructed pictures of the suspect.

The agency said key information came from five different sources on three continents.