Pedophile will be released in B.C.
VANCOUVER— A British Columbia man who served five years in a Thai prison for sexually abusing a child is expected to soon be released back into society now that he has been returned to Canada.
RCMP fear Christopher Neil is at high risk to reoffend, but the Crown has indicated it wants a publication ban on the hearing that will determine conditions of his freedom. Police say the 37-year-old has not committed any crimes in Canada. However, they used a section of the Criminal Code aimed at preserving public safety to arrest the man when he arrived Friday at Vancouver’s airport.
Neil appeared Monday before a provincial court judge in Richmond, near Vancouver, but his case was put off for two days.
“Any time you have a predator who is known to assault children in your environment, I think a community and a society need to know about that,” said Brian McConaghy, a former Mountie who heads a victims’ rights organization and attended the proceedings.
McConaghy has closely followed Neil’s case, which gained notoriety in 2007 when police widely released video images unscrambling an Internet photograph of Neil.
Neil pleaded guilty and was sentenced. “He served his time in Thailand for offences committed in Thailand, but there’s plenty more to the story and that’s what we’re interested in,” said McConaghy. “There is a legal process in place in Cambodia where they have expressed interest in him.”
Neil served his time at the Bangkok Remain Prison, where he shared a cell 12 metres by five metres with 60 other men. Crown spokeswoman Samantha Hulme said the publication ban applies because evidence discussed in a bail hearing is always subject to such conditions.