Christopher Paul Neil
Encyclopedia
Christopher Paul Neil also known as Mr. Swirl, or Swirl Face, or Vico (nicknamed after the Interpol operation concerning him), is a convicted child molester currently serving a 39-month-sentence (now extended by a further six years)
in Thailand. He was the subject of a well-publicized Interpol
investigation of the sexual abuse
of at least 12 young boys in Vietnam
, Cambodia
and Thailand
, primarily owing to the worldwide broadcast of pornographic images depicting the abuse. He was arrested by Thai police
in October 2007.
, Canada
, and raised and educated in Maple Ridge, British Columbia
. There he taught and studied to become a Catholic priest
.
The Seminary of Christ the King in Mission, B.C. did not permit Neil to become a priest, and he chose to go into teaching instead.
by a digital swirl
in the photographs, but German
computer experts at the Federal Criminal Police Office
were able to reconstruct the original picture, using techniques which they have not revealed but are believed to have been as simple as running the transformation in reverse (see Reverse swirl transformation below).
Several of these reconstructed pictures were posted on Interpol's website and led to over 350 people contacting the organization, five of whom identified the man as Neil. Neil was working as an English
teacher in the city of Gwangju
,South Korea
at the time but fled (with a one-way ticket) to Thailand
once he was publicly identified. He was arrested in the Nakhon Ratchasima Province
, in the Isan
region of northeast Thailand, on October 19, 2007. Thai police reportedly located the fugitive by means of a trace on the mobile phone of his 25-year-old Thai gay partner, who was himself identified by transvestites in the beach town of Pattaya
.
While Neil was teaching in Thailand, he allegedly employed the services of a Thai to bring young boys from Internet Cafes to his apartment to perform sexual services. As Neil arrived at the Royal Thai National Police Headquarters he was swarmed by a battalion of around 300 journalists wielding cameras, which resulted in a stampede.
On January 11, 2008, the start of his trial was set for March 10. He pleaded not guilty. On March 10 it was found that Neil did not have a lawyer. One was assigned to him and the trial was adjourned to June 2. He was sentenced on August 15, 2008 to 39 months in prison and $1,780 fine. His original sentence of 6 years was reduced by about half because he admitted to the crime. On November 24, 2008, his sentence was extended by six years following his conviction for molesting a second child.
and colour depth limitations in a digital image
make the operation slightly lossy, but it is reversible by applying the same operation with opposite rotational direction and the same intensity.
Although exact steps may vary, this disguise and restoration can be made by following these steps:
When starting with a "pre-swirled" image, the reversal may not be as easily done as the example shown to the right, as the settings of the initial swirl are not known. The correct position, area of effect and intensity (angle) of the swirl must be determined in order to cancel the initial swirl successfully, possibly by trial and error
, or with a live preview.
in Thailand. He was the subject of a well-publicized Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
investigation of the sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
of at least 12 young boys in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
and Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, primarily owing to the worldwide broadcast of pornographic images depicting the abuse. He was arrested by Thai police
Royal Thai Police
The Royal Thai Police are the national police of Thailand.-About:Primary responsibility for the maintenance of public order through enforcement of the kingdom's laws was exercised by the Thailand National Police Department , a subdivision of the Ministry of Interior...
in October 2007.
Life
Neil was born in New Westminster, British ColumbiaNew Westminster, British Columbia
New Westminster is an historically important city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and is a member municipality of the Greater Vancouver Regional District. It was founded as the capital of the Colony of British Columbia ....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and raised and educated in Maple Ridge, British Columbia
Maple Ridge, British Columbia
Maple Ridge is a District Municipality in British Columbia, located in the northeastern section of Metro Vancouver. Maple Ridge has a population of approximately 68,949.-History:...
. There he taught and studied to become a Catholic priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
.
The Seminary of Christ the King in Mission, B.C. did not permit Neil to become a priest, and he chose to go into teaching instead.
Interpol search and capture
Neil appeared in over 200 photographs depicting the abuse, which surfaced on the Internet and led to a worldwide manhunt known as Operation Vico. Neil's face was obscuredImage warping
Image warping is the process of digitally manipulating an image such that any shapes portrayed in the image have been significantly distorted. Warping may be used for correcting image distortion as well as for creative purposes...
by a digital swirl
Vortex
A vortex is a spinning, often turbulent,flow of fluid. Any spiral motion with closed streamlines is vortex flow. The motion of the fluid swirling rapidly around a center is called a vortex...
in the photographs, but German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
computer experts at the Federal Criminal Police Office
Federal Criminal Police Office (Germany)
The Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany is a national investigative police agency in Germany and falls directly under the Federal Ministry of the Interior...
were able to reconstruct the original picture, using techniques which they have not revealed but are believed to have been as simple as running the transformation in reverse (see Reverse swirl transformation below).
Several of these reconstructed pictures were posted on Interpol's website and led to over 350 people contacting the organization, five of whom identified the man as Neil. Neil was working as an English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
teacher in the city of Gwangju
Gwangju
Gwangju is the sixth largest city in South Korea. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister...
,South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
at the time but fled (with a one-way ticket) to Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
once he was publicly identified. He was arrested in the Nakhon Ratchasima Province
Nakhon Ratchasima Province
Nakhon Ratchasima or , often shortened to Korat or Khorat , is one of the north-eastern provinces of Thailand...
, in the Isan
Isan
Isan is the northeastern region of Thailand. It is located on the Khorat Plateau, bordered by the Mekong River to the north and east, by Cambodia to the southeast and the Prachinburi mountains south of Nakhon Ratchasima...
region of northeast Thailand, on October 19, 2007. Thai police reportedly located the fugitive by means of a trace on the mobile phone of his 25-year-old Thai gay partner, who was himself identified by transvestites in the beach town of Pattaya
Pattaya
Pattaya is a city in Thailand, located on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, about 165 km southeast of Bangkok located within but not part of Amphoe Bang Lamung in the province of Chonburi....
.
While Neil was teaching in Thailand, he allegedly employed the services of a Thai to bring young boys from Internet Cafes to his apartment to perform sexual services. As Neil arrived at the Royal Thai National Police Headquarters he was swarmed by a battalion of around 300 journalists wielding cameras, which resulted in a stampede.
On January 11, 2008, the start of his trial was set for March 10. He pleaded not guilty. On March 10 it was found that Neil did not have a lawyer. One was assigned to him and the trial was adjourned to June 2. He was sentenced on August 15, 2008 to 39 months in prison and $1,780 fine. His original sentence of 6 years was reduced by about half because he admitted to the crime. On November 24, 2008, his sentence was extended by six years following his conviction for molesting a second child.
Extended search for others
Thai police expanded the hunt for potential child sex offenders by publishing photographs of 50 Western suspects identified by international authorities, many of whom are German citizens. Other nationalities include British, Australian, Italian, Finnish and American. On the 6th of May, 2008, Interpol launched Operation IDent, its second public appeal to identify an unknown child abuse suspect, who featured in almost 100 images showing the sexual abuse of at least three boys between six and ten years old. After receiving more than 250 leads, Wayne Nelson Corliss was arrested by ICE agents in New Jersey, and charged with producing child pornography, admitting sex with three boys and denied bail. November 2009, he was sentenced to 19.5 years in prison.Reverse swirl transformation
The "swirl" operation allegedly used by Neil to disguise his face in photographs is in theory non-lossy: that is, information about the original image is not lost and can be perfectly restored from the altered version. In practice both resolutionImage resolution
Image resolution is an umbrella term that describes the detail an image holds. The term applies to raster digital images, film images, and other types of images. Higher resolution means more image detail....
and colour depth limitations in a digital image
Digital image
A digital image is a numeric representation of a two-dimensional image. Depending on whether or not the image resolution is fixed, it may be of vector or raster type...
make the operation slightly lossy, but it is reversible by applying the same operation with opposite rotational direction and the same intensity.
Although exact steps may vary, this disguise and restoration can be made by following these steps:
- Apply the twirl filter with x degrees settings to the picture. This should distort the picture.
- To un-distort, apply the twirl filter with -x degrees setting. Alternatively, one can vertically flip the picture and apply the first twirl filter (with x degrees) again.
When starting with a "pre-swirled" image, the reversal may not be as easily done as the example shown to the right, as the settings of the initial swirl are not known. The correct position, area of effect and intensity (angle) of the swirl must be determined in order to cancel the initial swirl successfully, possibly by trial and error
Trial and error
Trial and error, or trial by error, is a general method of problem solving, fixing things, or for obtaining knowledge."Learning doesn't happen from failure itself but rather from analyzing the failure, making a change, and then trying again."...
, or with a live preview.