Hunt For Pedophile Goes High-Tech

Interpol Releases Digitally Altered Images Of Child Sex Abuse Suspect

(CBS/AP)  Interpol sought public help Monday in identifying a suspected pedophile, revealing a technique to unscramble digitally altered images to show the face of a man seen in Internet photos sexually abusing young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Specialists succeeded in producing identifiable images of the man from the original pictures, where his face was a digitally blurred whirl, the international police organization said.

Since images were first broadcast on CBS' 60 Minutes Sunday night, Interpol has had 77 leads they consider worth investigating, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey. The organization's Web site has been averaging 500 hits per second - 20 times the normal rate.

Anders Persson, a Swedish police officer who oversees Interpol's database of images of child abuse, said releasing the photos sent "a quite clear message" to criminals that they can be identified through Web postings.

He declined to detail how specialists unblurred the photos.

"Techniques are always developing. What is impossible today is possible tomorrow," he said. "There were several attempts to clear the face ... We are sure that you can't get better pictures and the people in his neighborhood - family friends, colleagues, whatever - they will recognize him."

Interpol said 12 different young boys appeared in about 200 original photographs. One picture showed the name of a hotel in Vietnam, but police checks of the guest register turned up no clues, Persson said in a telephone interview. Cambodian police recognized locations in other photos.

Interpol, which is headquartered in Lyon in southeast France, posted four reconstructed photos of the man on its Web site, along with an original image where his face was blurred.

Persson said he personally had opposed making the photos public because it demonstrated to criminals that police can now unblur pictures. But that consideration and the risk that the man could face public humiliation or even violence now that he is recognizable were outweighed by the desire to protect other children from abuse.

"It was a long discussion," Persson said. "We can't just sit here and do nothing. We have exhausted all possibilities within police work to find this man ... This was the last step."

The photos by German specialists showed a white man who looked in his thirties, with uncombed short brown hair. One photo showed him wearing glasses; in another he was smiling.

The photos must date from before December 2004, when they were found on the Internet, and some were digitally stamped as having been taken in 2002 and 2003, said Persson.

"For years, images of this man sexually abusing children have been circulating on the Internet. We have tried all other means to identify and to bring him to justice, but we are now convinced that without the public's help this sexual predator could continue to rape and sexually abuse young children whose ages appear to range from six to early teens," Interpol's secretary general, Ronald K. Noble, said in a statement.

"We have very good reason to believe that he travels the world in order to sexually abuse and exploit vulnerable children," Noble added.

The 12 boys have not been located, he added. Interpol had already circulated photos of the man to police around the world but failed to identify him.

The man has distinguishing marks on his body that would be enable police to be sure that he is the man in the photographs if he is eventually identified, Persson said. He did not say what these marks were but said they would be "the final proof if he is the right guy or not."

Interpol asked people who recognize the man or who have other information to contact police or the Interpol bureau in their country. It urged them not to take any direct action themselves.

[missygurl1]

very ugly man inside and out....poor kids.....tie him spread eagle over a black ant hill put a big ol tube in his butt filled with honey, then let the ants go in the tube and eat him inside out. why do we have a feed and care for sick-os like this especially when they give no mercy to kids or kill them, no mercy for CONVICTED WITH PROOF child molestors/rapists.

[cbs_oliver]

Let''s hope they get him soon.

[drinuk]

What a truly un-intelligent comment from Interpol, "We have exhausted all police possibilities, this was the last step" What a stupid comment to make directly to this sick depraved creep, if true he his almost home free. As of today his resemblance to these photographs will have now been totally changed and Interpol will be right back where they started prior to unravelling the images. The only chance they now have is the guys family or past friends, let us hope that one of them has the guts and decency to come forward and tell us who he is.

[j-whitman]

hawksprings,,, He looks like a couple of republican members in Congress ----- One good thing from this administration is it made the mensroom toilet stalls high tech, floor to ceiling partitions ------ Thank you Senator "Wide Stance" for your contribution, everyone who shakes his hand has to wash thier own

[dmhphils]

Why is what he is doing wrong... Look at the African natives raping babies to prevent getting aids from a country half infected...


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Posted by opqual at 12:30 PM : Oct 08, 2007

Yeh, who drew the lines on tolerance anyway. I mean this guy is just practicing his sexual preference and we shouldn''t discriminate. I''m just making a POINT! Killing babies inside the womb or outside the womb...what''s the difference? Two daddies or two mommies? Who draws the line and where? Don''t you think the lines of what is right and what is wrong are so blurred now that it will be left up to the individual to decide for himself. Hey, were right back at the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You choose and be your own lord. God help us!

[godofredo29]

You know, I hate to sound contrarian here, but if we spent as much research on figuring out what makes these individuals tick--thereby allowing us to intervene before it gets to the point at which they are acting on these impulses and offering ways to, in effect, "cure" these individuals--we wouldn''t be here excoriating known offenders apparently for our own gratification. (Sorry, if I sound a little Canadian here.) Surely we''re smart enough to. There''s got to be some Einstein out there that can see where we need to look to find the answers. I''d trade anytime going that route and intervening with that Cooey fellow, for example, back when he was begging for help to the Georgia authorities before they released him and he went to Florida where he raped and killed Jessica Lunsford than all the lurid sensationalism we got instead.

[antoniof123]

I go for fish food maybe sharks or piranhas dip him in slowly and pull him out then dip him again.

[jetlizhan]

hawksprings:

i''ll second that!!!

[hawksprings]

I hope the guy in the pic has seen himself on the news today and is wetting his pants and planning his suicide.

...

[thisisbossi]

Er, there are plenty of shareware editing programs out there which can create the whirlpool effect; and one can just as easily whirlpool in the opposite direction to effectively undo it (albeit with some minor noise generally arising from varying algorithms between editors). I am honestly surprised that this is what passes for "high-tech" at Interpol... surely they are doing fancier things than this!

[theusa1st]

find, prosecute, find quilty and bury...let''s spend our money on something good and not something evil.
Or make him fish food as Hermit22 proposes...I don''t care either way...just get rid of the human trash.

[hermit22]

hang a millstone around his neck and drop him in the sea. (this good idea is 2000 years old at least.)

[j-whitman]

Airport mensroom stalls are going high tech also, extending the partions to the floor ----- Senator "Wide Stance" Craig wants Blackberry''s installed now in all mensroom stalls.

[nothappyatall]

They''d better hope their digital manipulation is accurate, cause the end result could be totally different than what was original in the photo and if theycause the WRONG dude a lot of trouble, their behinds are party to a multi million dollar LAWSUIT.

All this does now is tell the pedos to cut their faces totally out of the pictures instead of just blurring them.

[rational_1]

Why is what he is doing wrong... Look at the African natives raping babies to prevent getting aids from a country half infected...
Posted by opqual at 12:30 PM : Oct 08, 2007

Did you forget to take your antipsychotic medication this morning?