Thai police were in an all-out manhunt yestersday for a Canadian school teacher sought by Interpol over pedophilia allegations and believed at large in Thailand, saying they wanted to protect children in the Southeast Asian nation.

Border guards in Thailand and in neighboring countries around Asia were on alert in the event that 32-year-old Canadian Christopher Paul Neil, who entered Thailand last Thursday, tries to slip out of the country.

"All the immigration checkpoints are on full alert," said Thai police Colonel Apichart Suribunya. "We believe he is still in Thailand unless he has crossed into a neighboring country through the jungles."

Thai authorities were collaborating with police forces in several countries, along with Interpol, trying to gather sufficient evidence for an arrest warrant, Apichart said.

"We want to find this man as soon as possible to prevent him from abusing Thai children and other children," Apichart said.

Thai police plan to seek an arrest warrant after a boy accused him of paying for oral sex.

Police said a Thai teenager alleged Neil paid him for oral sex in 2003, when he was 14, giving them grounds to ask a court for arrest warrant for the Canadian fugitive.

Police Colonel Varayuth Sukavat said the young man met Neil through his father, hired to drive the Canadian around Bangkok and to the infamous red-light beach town of Pattaya.

The teenager told the police two friends stayed with Neil at an apartment in Bangkok, where he molested him, photographed and paid him between 500 and 1,000 baht ($15-$30) for each sex act, Varayuth said.

He said Neil molested him when he went to play computer games with his friends at Neil's apartment and he saw photos of Neil having sex with his friends stored on the computer.

Neil is believed to be on the run after leaving South Korea and arriving in Thailand last Thursday. Cameras recorded his arrival at Bangkok's international airport

Authorities believe Neil is the same man whose digitally blurred image had appeared in about 200 Internet photos that showed him sexually abusing young Vietnamese and Cambodian boys.

Police in Cambodia, which shares a border with Thailand, were scouring the country for victims of abuse or anyone who might have known Neil, though they had not yet determined whether he had visited Cambodia or abused children in the country, said Major General Keo Vannthan, director of Cambodia's Interpol bureau.

Interpol had issued an unprecedented global appeal for help in identifying and tracing the suspect on October 8.

Investigators had been hunting for the man for three years, since German police discovered online photographs of him allegedly abusing underage Asian boys.

He was allegedly shown sexually abusing 12 young Vietnamese and Cambodian boys, apparently as young as 6.

The man's face was initially disguised behind a digitalized swirl, but German police recreated an image of him and released four reconstructed photos last week.

On Monday, after receiving hundreds of tips, Interpol announced it had identified the suspect and Thai police disclosed his identity.

Agencies

(China Daily 10/18/2007 page10)