Pedophile suspect shown to media

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Thai police have arrested a suspected Canadian pedophile following a global manhunt launched when computer experts unscrambled digital photos allegedly showing him sexually abusing young boys.

Christopher Paul Neil was taken into custody early Friday in Nakhon Ratchasima, a town about 200 kilometers (130 miles) northeast of Bangkok, where he was allegedly attempting to contact underage boys, Maj. Gen. Wimol Pao-in said.

"Bingo! We've got him," the police chief told The Associated Press.

Neil, 32, kept his head covered with a blue shirt as he was paraded in front of a throng of photographers as he arrived in Bangkok, however he was made to sit -- head uncovered -- at a news conference a short time later.

The suspect sat silently and without expression as police officials spoke about the case. Watch the suspect face the media »

A police official explained that Neil did not want to speak at the news conference. Neil, with his head closely shaved but his beard apparently not shaved for several days, wore a T-shirt, jogging pants and sunglasses.

He will be extradited to Canada after being prosecuted in Thailand, police spokesman Pongsapat Pongjaren told AP.

Interpol, the international police agency that issued a worldwide appeal for information in the case last week, said the suspect had been working as an English teacher in South Korea and flew from Seoul to Bangkok last Thursday.

An arrest warrant issued in Thailand was based on the testimony of a boy who said he was lured to Neil's apartment in Bangkok by a Thai man, Wimol said Thursday, according to AP. The boy said Neil paid them for sex acts.

Interpol also issued a worldwide alert after about 200 photographs showing a man sexually abusing 12 different young males were posted on the Internet.

The photos, which authorities believe were taken in Vietnam and Cambodia in 2002 or 2003, had been digitally altered to disguise the man's face.

But German investigators were able to reverse the process and restore the images, and his picture was then distributed worldwide.

The suspect was identified within three days after the photographs were released, based on tips from five sources on three continents, according to Interpol. E-mail to a friend

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