Interpol launches global photo campaign to help find suspected paedophile

Paris: The global police body Interpol launched a worldwide photo appeal on Tuesday to find a suspected paedophile after its first such campaign led to the arrest and trial of a Canadian in Thailand.

Interpol posted pictures of a white-haired, balding man on its website, saying they were part of a series that showed him sexually abusing boys aged between 6 and 10 in southeast Asia.

The identity, nationality and whereabouts of the man were not known. The first pictures of him were found by police in Norway in March 2006 and so far about 800 images have been discovered, all featuring the same victims and locations.

The campaign is a repetition of the first such appeal last October, when Interpol unscrambled images of a suspect's "swirly face" on the internet.

This led to the arrest of 32-year-old Canadian Christopher Neil, who has since gone on trial in Thailand charged with molesting and distributing pornographic images of two Thai boys.

If found guilty he faces up to 20 years in prison.