Canada

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Thai prison guards escort Canadian Christopher Paul Neil, center, at criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand Friday, Aug. 15, 2008. A convicted pedophile who was once the subject of an international manhunt for allegedly posting his sexual assaults of children online after hiding his face behind a digital swirl has been arrested at Vancouver's airport.THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP,Sakchai Lalit

A convicted pedophile who was once the subject of an international manhunt for allegedly posting his sexual assaults of children online after hiding his face behind a digital swirl has been arrested at Vancouver's airport.

Christopher Neil, 37, was coming home to British Columbia after serving five years in a Thailand prison for sexually assaulting a young boy.

He was greeted on his return to Canada by members of the RCMP's Integrated Child Exploitation Unit as he stepped off a plane Friday night.

Neil had a bail hearing on Saturday morning and will appear before a judge on Monday, when a judge will assess his release or impose any conditions, said Cpl. Mat Van Laer.

He said police obtained a warrant for Neil's arrest prior to his arrival at the airport because of fear for the public's safety, even though there's no evidence of any offence being committed in Canada.

"We felt that based on the severity and the nature of the crime that Mr. Neil has committed abroad it was important that we, at the very least, bring the intention forward to our courts and see what they have to say about that," he said.

Interpol circulated his photos, and tips allowed police to identify Neil, who was teaching English in Korea at time before fleeing to Thailand.

Neil, who became known as Swirl Face, was arrested in that country and surrounded by a throng of media.

Television images of Neil entering a Bangkok courthouse at the time showed him barefoot, wearing an orange prison uniform and chained to another inmate.

Besides the sexual assault of at least one boy in Thailand Neil was also alleged to have abused young boys in Cambodia and Vietnam several years ago.