MAJOR UPDATES AT BOTTOM OF ENTRY.He may have sexually abused a dozen Asian boys, some of the boys as young as 6. The abuse was captured in 200 images posted on the Web. Recently, investigators in Germany managed to undo the method the man used to try and hide his face in the photos and on October 8, his unnamed mug went up on Interpol's website for the world to see.
Now he's on the run.
Interpol believes this man, who represents at the moment the face of complete creepiness all over the world, recently traveled from South Korea to Thailand. The AP published the image on the left -- a photo made of the man shortly after landed in Bangkok on October 11, 2007. Click the image to see full-size or go to the AP article. That's what he looks like now.
He was allegedly teaching English at a school in South Korea.
While the alleged pedophile has not been arrested, Interpol knows his nationality, birthdate, passport number, and most importantly, his name.
Whoever this man is, he has been recording these alleged crimes against children since at least 2003. Has he been teaching or tutoring in Asia all that time as well?
Upon first reading of Interpol's hunt for this man, I thought of John Mark Karr.
Karr came to infamy by claiming he murdered JonBenét Ramsey in December, 1996. DNA testing ruled him out as a suspect in the Ramsey case and in as a total whackjob.
I thought of Karr because when his name was first made public as a "suspect" in the Ramsey murder, a trail of posts and profiles he'd left on the Web came to light. They were all for either teaching, tutoring, or male nanny type positions. In some of his profiles, Karr claimed he'd worked for wealthy families in the Netherlands and Europe.
When he was arrested, Karr was about to begin a job teaching in -- where else? -- Thailand. Thailand, one of the more well-known hotspots for sex tourists seeking children to rape.
Now it turns out that the man being hunted by Interpol may have had more in common with Karr than I could have known at the time.
If he was teaching English in South Korea, he is either:
* American;and quite possibly fleeing allegations about his conduct in his home country.
* Australian;
* British;
* Canadian;
* Irish;
* (added at a reader's suggestion) New Zealand;
* South African.
Researching Karr, (who has since been in local news here in Atlanta several times, but thankfully fallen off the national radar) I discovered that many Westerners who teach English abroad have substantial presences on the Web -- they blog, they chat on message boards about their experiences.
This means the likelihood of this man having had a web presence that was outwardly normal and presentable is pretty high. If you have a bit of the cyber (or web-) sleuth in you, why not start looking? I've already found an English school in South Korea whose website is mysteriously offline at the moment, making me wonder -- but no reason to actually connect this man to that school.
This entry will be updated in the "old-style" as needed, as the story is unfolding in a way that might be better served by appending new content rather than re-editing the entry.
UPDATE 1
Here in the U.S., an alleged pedophile who apparently recorded his crimes has been captured in Nevada. Chester Arthur Stiles was arrested yesterday during a "routine traffic stop." Stiles was arrested in Henderson, NV, his vehicle pulled over because it had no license plate. Stiles then told the cops that he was the guy they were looking for, and that he was "tired of running."
The exhibitionist alleged pedo being sought by Interpol is a Canadian national and former chaplain named Christopher Paul Neil. True Crime Weblog reader "C from Vancouver" says that Neil has been identified at Dave's ESL Cafe as a poster there who used the screen name "Peter Jackson." Jackson/Neil's profile for the site was sent to Interpol, and some moderators at Dave's ESL Cafe are apparently actively assisting Interpol in the manhunt. (Click the images of Neil on the left to enlarge.)This message thread at the ESL Cafe purports to quote a post from Jackson/Neil where he said the following:
In Thailand I had:Emphasis added. For reasons that should be obvious, Jackson's original post was deleted by a board moderator soon after it was made.
Supapich (sounded like super bit* ch)
Kiddyporn
The blogger at Raincoaster.com was on top of the Jackon-Christopher Neil connection. Raincoaster linked to a Dave's ESL discussion containing a post by Jackson/Neil where he said the following about background checks for ESL jobs in Asia:
Police checks are NOT needed to get a visa. Public schools will want one but you should be able to stall them. Often they want teachers SO quickly that they will "wait" for some things. I never gave a police check for my last public school job. I was in Vietnam at the time and getting one wasn't easy. I delayed and never heard about it again.From Jackson/Neil's post above it was easy to find a listing of all his posts since he joined the forum in 2006.
On July 31 of this year, the man alleged by Dave's ESL Cafe mods to be Christopher Paul Neil posted the following message on the subject of having cameras in the classroom. His next to last paragraph is especially interesting:
I LOVE cameras in the classroom! Here's how I have handled them in the past:Considering how this man may have been outed to the world as an alleged pedophile, a message like that could haunt him later. Why would it even occur to him that any accusations might be made? It looked like the sort of thing that crosses the minds of many teachers when Jackson/Neil posted it, but now it seems like it may have been a thought that was never far from this man's mind, in particular.
I did a lot of acting in high school and college. I once thought about becoming an actor. That is until I met so many poor actors and I wasn't that good...
This being said, I have always used a bit of drama in my teaching. I tend to do better when I have an outside audience, too. So for the camera, I make sure I NEVER look at it but do all kinds of busy work. Check students' work individually, praise and instruct lots, clean up trash! All for the camera. I treat it as my own little TV show and if someone wants to watch me, well, I'm kind of flattered!
There are some really good reasons for having cameras. One is REALLY good for teachers: If a student or parent makes an accusation of some sort, it is extremely easy to prove or disprove if the lesson is on film. Think of it as safety.
And ham it up as well!
Christopher Paul Neil was teaching at the Kwangju Foreign School. This appears to be his listing from their staff page (link goes to Google cache, as his listing has been or will be removed shortly, I'm sure):
Grade 7/8-English, Social Studies : Mr. NeilChristopher Paul Neil's MySpace page was last accessed in mid-September:
B.A. History; Seminary of Christ the King; British Columbia , Canada
Canada Teaching Certificate
E-mail Address : cpasianeil@hotmail.com
http://www.myspace.com/25501756 [mirror here].
His headline read, "Loving Asia..... will I ever go home again??!"
Under 'About Me,' Neil wrote:
Been kicking around Asia for the past five years, teaching mainly and finding other forms of mischief. I like writing and am currently trying my hand at poetry...I may feel obliged to post some pieces here. All criticism is wanted and encouraged...I want to get better. I love teaching, can't get enough of it really. Enjoy drama, musicals and when in Korea you'll find me in the Norae Bang (Song room) on many occassions...can't say I sound very good but it's all fun.He also blogged on MySpace: http://blog.myspace.com/25501756 [mirror]. There he blogged about eating dog (EDIT: I personally find the idea of eating dog appalling, as do many in the "Western" world -- Neil seemed both amused and bemused by his experience), and he posted examples of his execrable attempts at poetry. He posted a poem in a blog entry titled "More..." on September 13, 2005. It read, in part:
I’ve got to get out of myselfFor further narcissistic verbal torture from accused international pedophile Christopher Paul Neil, I refer you to his blog. It's only a few entries long, but it does give a glimpse into the mindset of a man who would rape little Asian boys, no doubt children from terribly poor homes, then post the images as weird cyber-trophies online.
Free this slave, endure this trial no more
I’m running as fast as I can
My only hope is to let this go
Be alone
Escape this entrapment
The circle’s getting smaller
The tunnel narrower
Flexing on with a string
Tied amidst my waist
Holding on to a desperate feeling
Enslaved love
Forgotten reality
Bitter estrangement
Lonely entanglement...
UPDATE 2, 2:23 p.m. ET, 10/16/07
If you discover any of the ESL Cafe links are broken, this update may explain what's going on.
A moderator from Dave's ESL Cafe wrote in to let me know that they "have disabled 'Peter Jackson's' account (possibly belonging to Christopher Neil Paul) so he cannot log in and delete any of his posts."
The mod went on to say, "Personally I wouldn't mind if he goes into a corner with a firearm and eats it."
A lot of people would agree with such a sentiment.
(Incidentally, that was me on Fox News at about 1:20 p.m. Eastern Time today, if anyone saw it -- I've received one e-mail already from a viewer of that show who found this website through that appearance. I was discussing a case you can read about here, since I've never blogged it. But I might.)
Sources:
* The Associated Press.I've made very rudimentary mirrors of Chris Neil's MySpace profile and MySpace weblog. If you click "View All Blog Entries" from the mirrored profile, it will take you to the mirrored blog:
* The Dept. of Justice page on "Child Sex Tourism."
* Christopher Paul Neil's MySpace Mirror.If you steal the code I've saved to make your own mirror, I'll know. It's no big deal because I don't own the code, but I would appreciate the courtesy of letting me know you're doing so.
* Neil's MySpace blog mirror.
