Interpol closes on paedophile suspect
Police hunting a paedophile seen sexually abusing young children in newly unscrambled pictures believe they have identified him as a teacher of English who may now be in Thailand.
The suspected child abuser was identified by five different sources from three continents as a man teaching at a school in South Korea, Interpol said.
His name, nationality, date of birth, passport number, and current and previous places of work have also been established, after more than 350 people worldwide contacted Interpol in response to a global appeal.
The international police organisation released a picture of the man, who flew from Seoul to Bangkok international airport on Thursday, where his image was captured by security cameras.
Earlier last week Interpol said the man had appeared in 200 images on the internet sexually abusing young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Some of the boys were as believed to be as young six.
His face had been distorted by swirls. But the images were unscrambled by experts from German’s federal police agency. Pictures were then published on Interpol’s website.
He is said to have distinguishing marks on his body that would prove he is the man in the photographs if he is eventually found.
The manhunt has been codenamed Vico because of the links to Vietnam and Cambodia.
But today the secretary general of Interpol, Ronald Noble, said Thailand was now the focus for the search.
He said: “The response and contribution we have had from the public has been remarkable, as has the support from the media, which has enabled officers in our specialised unit, our office in Bangkok and police in other member countries to make such remarkable progress in such a short space of time.”
Mr Noble called for the public’s continued support to pinpoint the man’s new location.
