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	AP Exclusive: Suspected Pedophile in Global Manhunt Worked As Chaplain Advising Young Cadets Associated Press, carried in International Herald Tribune October 16, 2007 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/16/america/NA-GEN-Canada-Interpol-Manhunt.php TORONTO: A suspected pedophile, the subject of an unprecedented global Interpol manhunt, worked as a chaplain and counselor advising children for the Canadian military and was studying to become a priest, those who worked with him said. Before becoming an English teacher in Asia, Christopher Paul Neil, 32, worked as a chaplain from 1998 to 2000 at an air cadet summer training center in Nova Scotia, said Captain Hope Carr, a public affairs officer for the Canadian military. Neil's duties would include spiritual advising for children ages 12 to 18 and teaching a moral issues class, Carr said. "If young people were very homesick and having trouble coping away from home at a camp, he would be there to counsel," Carr said. There were no complaints about Neil brought to the commanding officers of the summer training centers during that time, Carr said, adding that she had spoken with the officers. Authorities said the man was shown in some 200 Internet photos abusing young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia. His face was masked by a digitalized blur, but German police managed to recreate an image of him, and four reconstructed photos were released to the public. Matthew Neil, 30, the man's younger brother, said the family learned about the accusations last week after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police contacted them to identify photos. "My mother is devastated and the family is in shock," Matthew Neil told The Associated Press from the family home in British Columbia. "We're cooperating with RCMP and Interpol. We're hoping this comes to a quick close." He said his brother likely knows he will be extradited to Canada, and he hopes he will surrender. He said his brother has worked overseas as a teacher for about five years, but the family has had no contact with him since he left for South Korea in August. Anne Kully, principal of Saint Patrick's School in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, said in 2000 and 2001 Christopher Paul Neil volunteered at the school as part of his training at Christ of the King seminary, where he was studying to become a priest. He also applied for a teaching position at the school, which teaches kindergarten through Grade 7, Kully said. Amy Bowler, a Canadian teacher who socialized with Christopher Paul Neil when he lived in the South Korean city of Yongin, said she contacted Interpol after seeing the photos, as did two acquaintances. Neil often went out with her circle of expatriates, and he loved to sing karaoke, she said. None of her friends suspected anything sinister about him, she said. "He had a number of close friends. He came out regularly for drinks. He was certainly not a pariah," Bowler said in a telephone interview. Kim Scanlan of the Toronto police child exploitation unit said Neil will be extradited to Canada once he is arrested.
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