Interpol releases images of suspected pedophile
Toronto police traced images in worldwide investigation
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 6, 2008 | 9:49 AM ET
CBC News
Interpol is asking for the public's help in identifying this man suspected of sexually abusing children. (Interpol)Photographs were released by Interpol on Tuesday of a man it says is a pedophile still at large despite a two-year international police investigation.
Neither the man's identity nor his current whereabouts are known.
The photographs were found on a computer hard drive belonging to a man arrested in Norway in 2006 and later charged with the sexual abuse of children.
The six images released by Interpol show a man in his late 50s, with thinning grey hair and glasses, wearing different shirts and from different angles.
Members of the Toronto police child exploitation unit attempted to trace some of the images showing the man as part of an investigation two years ago and have been trying to identify him ever since.
"I was involved in analyzing those images as part of a worldwide group and offering my expertise," Det.-Const. Warren Bulmer told CBC News on Tuesday.
In a statement accompanying the images, Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said the intent was to prevent more sexual abuse of children.
"We are now asking the public to help identify this predator and protect other potential victims from abuse," the statement said.
Images sent to 186 countries
Speaking to CBC news, Nick Moran from Interpol's headquarters in Lyon, France, said the six images were carefully chosen from more than 800 photographs found on the hard drive.
About 100 photographs show him sexually abusing children in a Southeast Asian country that could be Thailand, Moran said.
"We've put this out to our 186 member countries," he said, "to our specialist networks, just as we did with Christopher Paul Neil last year."
In October 2007, Neil, a former teacher from Maple Ridge, B.C., was identified from photos found on the internet after computer experts unscrambled the swirls of colour that had been encoded into the digital photo files to disguise his face.
Neil, 32, was arrested soon afterward in Thailand and will go on trial in June on charges of child sexual abuse. He denies the charges.
Moran of Interpol said anyone who believes they may have information about the man in the latest photos can contact their local police, or go to Interpol's website and report their suspicions online.
