Thai police: Three boys identify suspect

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Thai investigators say their case against a suspected pedophile is based on information from three boys in Thailand who say they were abused by the man when he made an earlier trip to the country.

Canadian teacher Christopher Paul Neil was the subject of a worldwide lookout posted earlier this month by Interpol, the international police agency, after he was identified as the man in 200 photographs posted on the Internet showing 12 different young males being sexually abused.

A Canadian who had been working in South Korea as an English teacher, he was arrested early Friday in Nakhon Ratchafima, a town about 130 miles northeast of Bangkok.

Maj. Gen. Wimol Pao-in, a Thai police official, said Neil was allegedly attempting to contact underage boys there.

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 Friday.

He was made to sit -- head uncovered -- at a news conference a short time later. He sat silently and without expression as police officials spoke about the case.

Neil, with his head closely shaved but his beard apparently not shaved for several days, wore a T-shirt, jogging pants and sunglasses. (Read more about Neil's appearance at a news conference.)

A Thai court Saturday granted investigators their request to keep Neil in jail for 12 days, something they can ask to have extended up to seven more times, while they prepare their case against him, Pao-in said.

He said it would likely take a month for the Thai case to be ready for a trial.

Thai officials would consider sending Neil to another country to face charges if there is a request for extradition, he said.

Thai police said the three boys who are expected to be key witnesses against Neil in any trial in their country were between the ages of seven and 14 at the time of their abuse.

The photos that initially drew Interpol's attention were believed to be taken in Vietnam and Cambodia in 2002 or 2003 and 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

CNN's Matthew Chance and Tess Eastment in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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