Christopher Paul Neil

Christopher Paul Neil
Christopher Paul Neil on a night out with fellow teachers, circa July 2007
Born	February 6, 1975 (1975-02-06) (age 34) New Westminster, British Columbia
Occupation	School Teacher
Known for	Sexually abusing children

Christopher Paul Neil (b. February 6, 1975, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada),^[1] also known as Mr. Swirl,^[2] Swirl Face^[3], is a convicted child molester currently serving a 39-month-sentence (now extended by a further six years)^[4] 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.^[5]

Life

Neil was raised and educated in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. There he taught and studied to become a priest ^[6]

Neil allegedly 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 obscured 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 below).^[7]

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,^[8]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. ^[9] Thai police reportedly located the fugitive by means of a trace on the mobile phone of his 25-year-old Thai katoey partner, who was himself identified by transvestites in the beach town of Pattaya.^[10] 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 where journalists stamped on his feet until they bled.^{[citation needed]}

On January 11, 2008, the start of his trial was set for March 10. He pleaded not guilty.^[11] 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^[12]. 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.^[13][14]. On November 24, 2008, his sentence was extended by six years following his conviction for molesting a second child.^[15]

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.^[16] On the 6th of May, 2008, Interpol launched Operation IDent, its second public appeal to identify an unknown child abuse suspect,^[17][18] who featured in almost 100 images showing the sexual abuse of at least three boys between six and ten years old.^[19] After receiving more than 250 leads,^[20][21] Wayne Nelson Corliss was arrested by ICE agents in New Jersey,^[19] and charged with producing child pornography, admitting sex with three boys and denied bail. ^[22] November 2009, he was sentenced to 19,5 years in prison.

The case of Neil is said to have changed the Korean Immigration's attitude toward English teachers working in Korea.^[23]

Reverse swirl transformation

This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (October 2007)

Image demonstrating how a reverse "swirl" effect used on a manipulated image the Mona Lisa can effectively cancel the initial effect

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 resolution 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 the following steps:

1. Apply the twirl filter with x degrees settings to the picture. This should distort the picture.
2. 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.

References

External links

• Press release on Interpol website
• Net pedophile suspect arrested
• Pedophile sentenced to 39 months prison