Police identify internet sex abuser

The suspected child abuser, photographed abusing children in Vietnam and Cambodia, was identified by five different sources from three continents as a man teaching English at a school in South Korea, Interpol said.

The man's name, nationality, date of birth, passport number, and current and previous places of work have also been established, Interpol said.

The international police organisation released a picture of the man who flew from Seoul to Bangkok International Airport on Thursday, where his image was captured by security cameras.

Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble said: "Thailand is at the centre of an international manhunt, and authorities in the country, in cooperation with Interpol and police around the world, are hunting him down.

"The response and contribution we have had from the public has been remarkable, as has the support from the media, which has enabled officers in our specialised unit, our office in Bangkok and police in other member countries to make such remarkable progress in such a short space of time."

He said more than 350 people worldwide contacted the organisation in response to the appeal and called for the public's continued support to pinpoint the man's new location.

The appeal, the first of its kind, was launched last Monday.

Although the original photographs were digitally altered by either the man or an accomplice to disguise his face, specialists from Germany's federal police agency, the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), working with Interpol's Trafficking in Human Beings Unit, were able to produce an identifiable image of him.

The man was pictured sexually abusing 12 different young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia in a series of around 200 images.