British Columbia Teacher To Serve 3 Years In Thai Prison For Pedophilia

August 15, 2008 11:46 p.m. EST

Bangkok, Thailand (AHN) - A schoolteacher from British Columbia, Canada, will spend three years and three months in a Bangkok prison after pleading guilty in a Thai court Friday to engaging in pedophilia.

Christopher Paul Neil, 32, was also ordered to pay $1,892 as compensation to the 13-year-old Thai boy he sexually abused in 2003. The victim, now 18, testified that Neil abused him in his Bangkok apartment, where photos of him in sexual acts with boys were also found by police.

Neil was supposed to get a sentence of six years and six months but it was shortened because he pleaded guilty to the charge on May 12. However, he still faces a 20-year sentence in a separate trial involving sexual abuse of his victim's younger brother. The trial in that case resumes on Oct. 7.

Thai police arrested Neil Oct. 19, 2007, after the international police agency Interpol launched a global manhunt for him. He was identified as the man having sex with boys in hundreds of Internet photos.