NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. — Confessed pedophile, sex tourist and child pornographer Christopher Neil struggled to compose himself before addressing the judge Friday at the end of a two-day sentencing hearing.
“I do not believe that sex with a child is acceptable in Thailand or anywhere in the world,” the 41-year-old former teacher from Maple Ridge read from his notes that trembled in his hands. “In fact, I believe the opposite.”
It was the first time Neil has spoken publicly since 2007. That’s when he was dubbed Swirl Face by Interpol in what was then its largest global manhunt. More than 315 images of him with young Asian boys had been found on the Internet.
“I will do everything that I can and it is my full intention to change my life,” Neil told Justice John Harvey. “I know that (Crown prosecutor) Brendan McCabe said, ‘He’s a pedophile. He can’t change.’
“Well, I want to challenge that. I say, yes I can and I will try my best and do everything that I can to not offend again.”
Convicted pedophile Christopher Neil in 2012.
After being identified and arrested in Thailand in 2007, Neil spent five years in a Thai jail for sexually abusing two boys there before being pardoned and deported to Canada.
Neil voluntarily agreed to conditions when he returned in 2012 including not accessing or possessing child pornography or electronic devices to access the Internet.
Within months of his return, he was charged under the sex tourism provisions of the Criminal Code with offences against two Cambodian boys in 2003 as well as with accessing, distributing and possessing of thousands of images of child pornography.
Last December, Neil pleaded guilty to five charges — two counts each of sexual touching and invitation to sexual touching of two Cambodian boys in 2003, one count of possession of child pornography in 2007 and one count each of possessing and accessing child pornography in 2013 and 2014.
Neil concluded his statement saying, “I’m very sorry and I just want to say that to all of the victims that this court heard about and all the others that have been harmed by my acts that I am sorry.”
It’s hard to judge the sincerity of his promise or of Neil’s remorse. By Friday, he had spent two years and 25 days in jail here, segregated from other inmates for his own safety and allowed out of his cell only two hours a day.
Even among criminals, pedophiles and child sex offenders are loathed; their crimes seen for the grotesque acts that they are.
There is no doubt that Neil is a deeply troubled, even pathetic man.
“I am homosexual and even now, I don’t feel comfortable saying that,” he said. “But that’s another story.”
He has enough self-loathing or at least embarrassment that Neil barely looked up from the floor at the judge, his lawyer, the prosecutors or anyone else over two days that he sat in the prisoner’s box.
The psychologists whose reports were filed with the court agreed on the diagnosis: He is a pedophile, who — given the opportunity — has a moderate to high risk of once again accessing and collecting pornography that features pre-pubescent boys.
They also agreed that he is at low to moderate risk of re-offending with children. However, the court appointed psychologist emphasized that Neil’s risk of re-offending would be substantially raised if he were to return to countries like Thailand or Cambodia where children are considerably more vulnerable to predators because of poverty, corruption and failures of various institutions to protect them.
But as Neil and his lawyer pointed out, both Cambodia and Thailand now have tougher penalties for child sex abusers than Canada does.
Here, the maximum sentence that the Crown prosecutor could ask for was five years — three-year, concurrent sentences for the offences involving the two Cambodian boys, a year for the 2007 count of child pornography, six months and a year for the two counts of accessing child pornography in 2013 and 2014.
Justice Harvey said he would hand down his sentence on June 1.
But because Neil gets double-time credit for most of the time he has already spent in jail, he could be out within 10 months to a year.
That’s why the prosecutor asked for extensive restrictions, including a lifetime ban on Internet access, a lifetime ban on travel outside Canada, mandatory counselling and therapy, and mandatory registration as a sex offender.
Is it enough? Is it enough to prevent him from reoffending or enough to protect children in the future?
But, as importantly, is there going to be enough help and support for Neil so that he can make good on his promise to change?
