Thai court Jails Interpol's "Swirly-Face" Paedophile Christopher Neil
BANGKOK - A Thai court sentenced Canadian "swirly face" paedophile Christopher Neil to 39 months in prison on Friday for abducting and molesting a 14-year-old boy and posting pornographic pictures on the Internet.
Neil, who appeared in court wearing orange prison garb and shackled at the ankles, refused to comment after the verdict. His translator, Feros Mia, told reporters he had shown no emotion in court and that he was "fine with the verdict".
The judge handed down a sentence of 6-½ years but said she was cutting that in half because Neil had confessed.
He faces another trial in October on a charge of molesting the boy's younger brother, who was nine at the time of the alleged offence.
Neil, who is in his early 30s, was caught after police computer experts in Germany unravelled his digitally scrambled face from images of child sex abuse on the Internet, prompting Interpol to issue a worldwide public appeal to identify him.
The pictures are thought to have been taken in Vietnam or Cambodia, outside Thai jurisdiction.
After he was unmasked, Neil fled to Thailand from South Korea, where he had been teaching, but was caught after a week on the run. Two Thai brothers came forward and accused him of paying them for oral sex, leading to his prosecution in Bangkok.
Neil was also ordered to pay compensation to the boy's family of 60,000 baht (955 pounds).
Reuters UK
Canadian sentenced for sex abuse:
Canadian schoolteacher Christopher Neil has been sentenced to three years and three months in jail for abusing a 13-year-old boy in Thailand.
The 32-year-old was also fined 60,000 baht ($1,780). He still faces similar charges, which he denies, relating to the victim's younger brother.
Neil was detained last year after a doctored internet image was unscrambled using digital technology.
Hundreds of photos allegedly showing him abusing Asian boys were uncovered.
Neil received half the sentence he might have faced, because he pleaded guilty to the charges.
But he denies abusing the victim's younger brother, and his trial on that charge is scheduled for October.
Neil, who only said "OK" after the sentence was passed, will not appeal against the sentence imposed on Friday.
Photos were found online in 2004 of a man sexually abusing at least a dozen Vietnamese and Cambodian boys, some as young as six, but the face of the suspect had been digitally obscured by a swirling shape.
After the images were unscrambled and issued to media for broadcast, investigators received hundreds of tips which led to Neil's arrest on 19 October 2007.
BBC News