Interpol Says Suspected Pedophile Identified, Sought in Thailand
These images made available by Interpol in Paris show an unidentified man after, left, and before the digital manipulation of the image.
Monday , October 15, 2007
PARIS —
A suspected pedophile sought in a worldwide Interpol manhunt has been identified and is believed to be in Thailand, the international police organization said Monday.The man was allegedly shown sexually abusing 12 young Vietnamese and Cambodian boys, apparently ranging in age from 6 to early teens, in about 200 photographs posted on the Internet. The man's face was disguised in the photos as a digitalized whirl.
Using techniques that neither they nor Interpol would discuss, German police recreated an image of the man's face and released four reconstructed photos of him last week.
Interpol said more than 350 people then supplied tips to authorities worldwide, leading them to identify the man as an English teacher who worked at a school in South Korea.
Interpol said it now knows the suspect's name, nationality, date of birth and passport number, but it did not release that information in its statement. It said the man flew from Seoul, South Korea, to Bangkok, Thailand, last Thursday, with security cameras documenting his arrival at Thai immigration. Interpol again appealed for public help to track him down now.
"Thailand is at the center of an international manhunt, and authorities in the country, in co-operation with Interpol and police around the world, are hunting him down," Interpol's secretary general, Ronald K. Noble, said in a statement.
In Bangkok late Monday, the deputy chief of Thailand's Interpol liaison office, police Col. Pornprasert Kanchanarin, said he was unaware of the new developments in the case.
Authorities in the countries affected are still collecting and analyzing evidence to bring charges against the man when he is arrested, according to Interpol's statement.
Interpol provided two new photos of the suspect Monday. One, taken by Thai immigration officials upon his arrival Thursday, showed him seemingly older, with close-cropped hair and wearing glasses. The other, which Interpol said was provided by an informant, was a simple head shot of the man, smiling and ruddy-faced.
Interpol's decision to release the four reconstructed photos was seen as being somewhat risky because it could tip off criminals to techniques police have at their disposal and prompt them to better hide their identities.
One of the pictures released last week and posted on Interpol's Web site showed the suspect with uncombed short brown hair. Another showed him with a hairy chest.
The photos date from before December 2004, when they were found on the Internet, Anders Persson, a Swedish police officer assigned to Interpol's human trafficking unit, said last week. Some were digitally stamped as having been taken in 2002 and 2003, he said.
In its first appeal, Interpol said it had previously circulated photos of the man to police around the world, but failed to identify him — prompting the public appeal for help.
It also asked people who recognized the suspect or who have other information to contact police or the Interpol bureau in their country. It urged them not to take any direct action themselves.
Now, with the suspect still at large, "we must again enlist the public's support," Noble said.
The boys believed to have been abused have not been located, Persson said.
