[溫哥華本地新聞] Pedophile’s return will test Canada’s resolve to protect children children, overseas, protect, return, world

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Pedophile’s return will test Canada’s resolve to protect children both here and overseas: Bramham




Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Pedophile+return+will+test+Canada+resolve+protect+children+both+here+overseas+Bramham/7328330/story.html#ixzz289VaMgGE
One of the world’s most notorious pedophiles came home to Vancouver on Friday after being released from a Thai jail.
Christopher Neil never made it out of the airport.
The 37-year-old former teacher from Maple Ridge was arrested and remains in custody. Neil has not been charged with anything ... yet, but he could be.
Neil will automatically be placed on Canada’s sex offender registry because of a bill passed earlier this year.
Still, his arrival will test Canada’s determination to protect children both here and overseas by prosecuting travelling sexual predators when they come home. And whatever Canada does, the whole world will be watching.
Canada has a 15-year-old extraterritorial law that provides for prosecution of so-called ‘sex tourists.’ It is so rarely used that only five men — two from British Columbia — have been convicted.
But it could be used against Neil.
His convictions in Thailand had nothing to do with the international warrant issued for his arrest in 2007 along with a plea from Interpol for public help in finding him.
That global warrant was for sexually abusing 12 boys and distributing close to 200 images of their assaults on the Internet. German police unscrambled Neil’s digitally obscured face in the images that show him sexually abusing the boys — some as young as six.
Interpol identified the boys as Vietnamese and Cambodian.
Neil was arrested in Thailand three days after Interpol released his name and photo.
There, Neil initially pleaded not guilty to four unrelated counts of molesting and distributing pornographic images of two Thai boys, 13 and nine years old. He later pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually abusing the 13-year-old and to sexually abusing the nine-year-old.
Now Neil has landed here.
Will police and prosecutors ask for and be given the tools to pursue charges related to the abuse of those other 12 boys or Internet distribution of sexually explicit images?
Or will Neil get lucky as Orville Mader did when he fled Thailand in 2007 and came home to Vancouver?
Mader had been convicted in absentia of sex crimes against Cambodian children in 2004 after fleeing to Thailand where he was then charged with abusing a 13-year-old boy.

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Mader was never charged in Canada. And, although a judge placed conditions on him, those lapsed after two years even though they can be renewed endlessly. The conditions included that Mader turn in his passport.

Conditions are all that prosecutors are seeking when Neil returns to court Wednesday, for now. The Criminal Code allows people like Neil and Mader to be held in police custody until conditions are placed on them, if a judge deems that they are likely to commit sexual offences against children under 16.

Neil’s duty counsel, Mark Thompson, hasn’t had time to figure out what conditions are being sought. They’re likely, however, to mirror those placed on Canada’s first convicted sex tourist Donald Bakker, who completed his seven-year prison term in June. Bakker has a curfew, is banned from using any device to access the Internet and from frequenting areas where children are commonly present.

Yet more disturbing than the prosecution’s reluctance to talk about possible conditions is that it wants a publication ban on evidence that will prove why Neil is so dangerous he must have restrictions placed on his liberty.

Thompson says Neil has a right to privacy.

But does he?

Clearly, the Canada Border Services Agency, RCMP and the criminal justice branch were tipped to Neil’s return, even though it had long been expected that he would be extradited to face trial in Cambodia.

How much warning they got and who alerted them — Canadian diplomats or Thai officials — is unclear.

Nor is it clear how Neil got here. Was he escorted, since there are no direct flights from Bangkok? Did Canada give him temporary travel documents?

There are so many unanswered questions.

Even Neil — unshaven and dressed more for the beach than a brief courtroom appearance Monday morning — seemed to be scrambling.

He got no legal advice until Thompson showed up at work.

With no chance for his lawyer to read the file, Neil agreed to the adjournment and at least two more days in jail.

The longer he stays there the better, since keeping children safe from predators should be everyone’s foremost consideration.

Not only should his movements be circumscribed if he is set free, every possible effort should be made to see whether there is evidence to substantiate the claims behind Interpol’s arrest warrant.


Christopher Neil sits in the Bangkok Criminal Court in January 2008. Neil became the focus of an international manhunt when German police determined his identity in manipulated photos of child abuse posted on the Internet. He served four years in a Thai prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing two boys, aged 13 and nine. Neil was arrested at Vancouver airport Friday upon returning to Canada and is next due in court on Wednesday.


Thai prison guards escort Christopher Paul Neil at criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand in August 2008. A convicted pedophile who was once the subject of an international manhunt for allegedly posting his sexual assaults of children online, Neil was arrested at Vancouver International Airport Friday.


A Sheriff’s van arrives at Richmond courthouse Monday where pedophile Christopher Neil was scheduled to make an appearance.