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Comments on ‘International manhunt tracks pedophile suspect to Thailand’

Unscrambled pics yield more than 350 tips

Published Monday 15th October 2007 22:55 GMT

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Pitty the fool... 

By Anonymous Coward
Posted Monday 15th October 2007 23:13 GMT
Paris Hilton

"More than 350 people responded to last week's appeal, Interpol said. The suspect was identified from information provided by five people on three continents."

I feel sorry for the guy if that whopping ~2% of 'witnesses' are wrong.

same guy? 

By yeah, right.
Posted Monday 15th October 2007 23:33 GMT

Odd. The untwirled picture and the one in this article don't look like the same guy to my (admittedly untrained) eye. Yes, they both have really short hair. Apart from that, the nose and chin seem different for starters.

Oh well. Somewhere out there is someone who is going to get royally screwed by the police forces of the world. Hopefully it's the real perpetrator, because nothing is too cruel for that kind of sicko. However, whether or not it's the actual perpetrator probably isn't material, so long as the police can show they can catch someone. Anyone. We can only hope it's the right guy, because whoever they catch has already been found guilty by the press and probably doesn't have much of chance with the courts either.

Cynically yours,

<yr>

Title 

By Andy Tunnah
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 00:29 GMT

i dont think they're randomly going off the picture - they've collected information from so many ppl

plus there's the facts surrounding this guys appearance in thailand - he was teaching english in south korea and "fled" to thailand

hopefully he wasn't teaching school kids o_O

Why... 

By Chris C
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 01:16 GMT

There's one thing I don't understand. I think we can all agree that child pornography and child abuse is bad, and that anyone who takes part in it should be removed from society. So why on earth would Interpol and/or the various law enforcement agencies NOT want the public's help in finding these people? The FBI has various lists of wanted people, including a list of (albeit only six) "Televised Sexual Predators", right on their home page. So in cases where it's cut-and-dry (such as this case, where the "suspect" is in over 200 photographs), why not ask for the public's help?

Before anyone jumps on my back about how photographs can be doctored, if you have a large enough sample (say, 200), you can tell if they're authentic or doctored. There's no such thing as a perfectly doctored photo.

That's terrible! 

By David Wiernicki
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 03:51 GMT
Coat

I never would have thought that Moby would get up to such shenanigans.

Coulda saved everyone the time..... 

By Dion R
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 05:30 GMT
Flame

I shoulda just "outted" this dude from the start .... It's MOBY.... thats right folks .... MOBY... Bodyrock yo !!!

Thailand cops 

By John Folken Wolf
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 07:14 GMT
Dead Vulture

Hehe, foolish scumbag should've thought it thorougly before fleeing to Thailand, cause if/when Thailand cops cuff his sorry ass, he stands an absolute zero chance of making it to the courts, let alone jail...

Because of their somewhat loose laws relative to child exploitation (that changed alot in the last 5 years btw), the cops there often want to make sure the perp won't have a second chance at doing it again, which he'd definitely have if going the usual court way. Nothing out of the ordinary of course, a simple "the scum resisted to his arrest" does the trick most of the time...

I have a few friends in Bangkok, and all of them confirmed this, most people there are kinda tired of their country being branded "paedophiles' haven".

Update 

By Pete Randall
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 08:18 GMT
Boffin

Get with the times, Mr Goodin:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7045701.stm

His name's Christopher Paul Neil, 32, an English teacher from Canada.

What's afoot 

By Nano nano
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 08:43 GMT
Coat

"Pedophile" - so they're after some guy who likes feet, right ?

"pedophile"? 

By Anonymous Coward
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 08:59 GMT
Joke

Getting Interpol involved in the hunt for a man who loves feet seems a little extreme...

@Andy Tunnah 

By Anonymous Coward
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 09:38 GMT

I think you've missed the point about being a pedophile English teacher in Thailand; he's certainly teaching kids.

Risk to Innocent 

By N1AK
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 10:12 GMT

Chris C: The main reason (to me at least) with public manhunts is that the public are even worse at getting the right person than the police.

As a case in point, I don't have figures for total number of spottings but I can think of at least 9 countries that 'Madeleine' (Young missing child) has had multiple spottings in. It is also not unknown for innocent people to be targetted by Vigilantes because they 'looked like' or had the same name as a sex offender.

I'm not saying public appeals should never be used, I simply don't want them to be used for everything and anything.

Thailand cops 

By Mark
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 10:37 GMT

Would be a shame if he did accidently get shot, I'd rather see him spend 20 yrs in a Thai jail, Death is probably a better option.

@several 

By David
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 11:08 GMT

"I think you've missed the point about being a pedophile English teacher in Thailand; he's certainly teaching kids."

I think the point was that pedophiles aren't into child-abuse whilst paedophiles are.

The other problem with public manhunts... 

By Anonymous Coward
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 11:44 GMT

Is that it can quite easily lead to vigilante violence. All it takes is for someone to describe the guy by voice to the wrong person and suddenly a bald guy with glasses is getting the shit kicked out of him in Thailand.

While paedophillia is up there with the worst of the worst crimes, suggesting it's ok for police to take matters into their own hands when they pick a suspect up is naive at best. One of the reasons that they might not stay in jail too long is, of course, that the courts could be lenient, the other is that he might be innocent. Courts are there, not only to provide proper sentencing (something that does seem to be lacking), but to prove that someone is guilty without doubt, or innocent.

American vs. British spelling here... 

By Anonymous Coward
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 13:39 GMT
Alien

"I think the point was that pedophiles aren't into child-abuse whilst paedophiles are."

@2% witness 

By laird cummings
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 15:10 GMT

Atually, a 2% good information return on tips seems a pretty high ratio. They undoubtably got large numbers of calls from cranks, idiots, the clueless, and people honestly trying to help, but whom were totally wrong. That they managed to get that number of solid hits is pretty good. Any way, it was more than enough to put *this* guy to flight.

I see some resemblance between the images, presuming the unswirled image to be one of a substantially younger perp. hopefully they do indeed have the right guy, or at least *a* right guy, anyway - a preditor that is, and not an unfortunate innocent.

At the risk of being pedantic.... 

By Lee Ward
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 16:38 GMT
Boffin

Contrary to the new crop of media hacks and other illiiterates... A Paedophile is someone who "loves, likes, or is attracted to" children, in the same way a Bibliophile is someone who "one that loves, likes, or is attracted to" books.

The term would actually apply to parents who are glad they procreated, doting grandparents, and anyone else who likes children.

The correct term for a sick bastige who needs his/her life to be spent in solitary.... is a "SEXUAL Paedophile"

and now......back to the regular programming

Lee

Pedophile, paedophile, sexual paedophile 

By David Wilkinson
Posted Tuesday 16th October 2007 20:24 GMT

Dictionaries are descriptive not normative and words obtain meaning by usage, there is no other linguistic authority beyond usage.

Natural languages are living languages that change over time. (Actually most of the artificial languages seem to change over time a well.)

Maybe at some point in the past pedophile meant something else, but today it is equivalent to sexual pedophile.

PS I am betting that before they went public with a name they had more a bit more than tips based on unscrambled images.

Also I am guessing that with that many photos there must be moles, scars, tattoos ... something to uniquely identify him once they have in in custody.

I also have to chime in against police brutality and vigilante justice, its very important that people get a fair trail, especially in these cases.

From what I hear people in prison have pretty much the same attitude toward these sick bastard so there is no need to rush things.

Also court cases tend to go better in these countries when the international press is paying attention. No judge is getting bribed in this case.

vigilante words 

By Demian Phillips
Posted Wednesday 17th October 2007 17:43 GMT
Coat

I thought pedarest was the word for someone who likes a bit of the in/out in/out with the kiddies?

The other problem with mobs is they tend to aggro when they see a pediatrician.

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