Canadian teacher faces new child abuse charges
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A former Canadian schoolteacher who spent five years in a Thai prison for sexually abusing children after an image of his digitally obscured face was reconstructed is facing 10 new charges, police said Friday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Christopher Paul Neil was arrested for sexual touching and child pornography production, which police say occurred in 2003 in Cambodia, and possession of child pornography in 2007 in Canada. He also faces additional counts of accessing child pornography.
Neil taught in several Asian countries before being first arrested in 2007 following an international manhunt after hundreds of photos of him allegedly engaging in sex acts with young boys were discovered on the Internet. Neil was arrested in Thailand after Interpol unscrambled swirled digital images from about 200 Internet photos, which showed Neil engaging in sexual acts with boys.
He released and returned to Canada in 2012 under strict conditions meant to protect children, but he pleaded guilty to breaching a condition last year after police found him with a laptop in breach of his conditions.
Police said the latest apprehension was the result of investigations by both RCMP Integrated Child Exploitation and Vancouver city police. In September 2012, Thai officials in Thailand confirmed evidence provided by Canadian police in their case had not been used in their prosecution. Canadian investigators working with prosecutors reviewed their findings and conducted follow up investigations.
Neil is due in court March 31.
