World photo appeal set standard in paedophile hunt
Enlarge imageBy Tom Pfeiffer
MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - The successful use of a worldwide photo appeal in a hunt for a suspected paedophile has set a precedent for how the world’s police forces track down suspects, Interpol officials said on Tuesday.
Detectives in various countries had been hunting Canadian Christopher Paul Neil since German police discovered photographs on the Internet three years ago of a man sexually abusing 12 boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.
He was arrested in Thailand days after a photo of the man was issued to the public in an unprecedented worldwide appeal. Neil denies charges of molesting underage children in Thailand.
"We will use this approach again to identify child sex abusers," Kristin Kvigne, assistant director for human trafficking at Interpol, said on the sidelines of the world police body’s general assembly in Morocco.
Interpol delegates voted overwhelmingly on Monday to use more worldwide photo appeals to identify suspected perpetrators of sex abuse.
Investigators will use such appeals if the danger to children outweighs the risk of suspects being attacked by citizens wanting to mete out private justice.
PHOTOGRAPH SCRAMBLED
Neil’s face had been scrambled with a digital swirling pattern, but German police computer experts managed to unravel the disguise.
His .....continued below
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arrest was a high-profile success for Interpol, which operates on an annual budget of 45 million euros and whose general secretariat employs around 500 people.Set up in 1923 as the International Criminal Police, the organisation has grown in importance in recent decades as the growth of illegal migration, Internet child pornography, online fraud and international terrorist networks forces national police forces to cooperate more.
An Interpol unit for fighting Internet child sex abuse set up a database in 2001 that now has over 500,000 images of abuse and has helped rescue nearly 600 victims.
"This operation has sent a very strong message to anyone wanting immunity from prosecution for child sex offences -- we will continue doing this and will continue to find these people," said Kvigne.
Interpol officials said the techniques pioneered by Interpol may also be applied in the hunt for terrorists planning devastating attacks.
"This affair opened another dimension to investigations in coming years, new prospects and new options that should be considered," said Interpol’s executive director of police services Jean-Michel Louboutin.
By Tom Pfeiffer
MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - The successful use of a worldwide photo appeal in a hunt for a suspected paedophile has set a precedent for how the world’s police forces track down suspects, Interpol officials said on Tuesday.
Detectives in various countries had been hunting Canadian Christopher Paul Neil since German police discovered photographs on the Internet three years ago of a man sexually abusing 12 boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.
He was arrested in Thailand days after a photo of the man was issued to the public in an unprecedented worldwide appeal. Neil denies charges of molesting underage children in Thailand.
"We will use this approach again to identify child sex abusers," Kristin Kvigne, assistant director for human trafficking at Interpol, said on the sidelines of the world police body’s general assembly in Morocco.
Interpol delegates voted overwhelmingly on Monday to use more worldwide photo appeals to identify suspected perpetrators of sex abuse.
Investigators will use such appeals if the danger to children outweighs the risk of suspects being attacked by citizens wanting to mete out private justice.
PHOTOGRAPH SCRAMBLED
Neil’s face had been scrambled with a digital swirling pattern, but German police computer experts managed to unravel the disguise.
His arrest was a high-profile success for Interpol, which operates on an annual budget of 45 million euros and whose general secretariat employs around 500 people.
Set up in 1923 as the International Criminal Police, the organisation has grown in importance in recent decades as the growth of illegal migration, Internet child pornography, online fraud and international terrorist networks forces national police forces to cooperate more.
An Interpol unit for fighting Internet child sex abuse set up a database in 2001 that now has over 500,000 images of abuse and has helped rescue nearly 600 victims.
"This operation has sent a very strong message to anyone wanting immunity from prosecution for child sex offences -- we will continue doing this and will continue to find these people," said Kvigne.
Interpol officials said the techniques pioneered by Interpol may also be applied in the hunt for terrorists planning devastating attacks.
"This affair opened another dimension to investigations in coming years, new prospects and new options that should be considered," said Interpol’s executive director of police services Jean-Michel Louboutin.
© 2008 Reuters Click for restrictions
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