Swirl Face, HIV & the FBI

Christopher Paul Neil is a Canadian pedophile who photographed of himself while raping small boys in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.  He posted about 200 photos on the internet obscuring his face with a digital swirl.  The photos caught the attention of the Interpol, which began a worldwide manhunt.  He was nicknamed Swirl Face.  With the cooperation of German computer experts, the swirl was reversed, and he was identified.  At that time he was teaching in Gwanju, South Korea.  When he realized that he was a wanted man, he fled to Thailand, where he was eventually arrested in 2007. 

I remember learning about this story on a segment of 60 Minutes news program.  It would be years before I would consider moving to Asia.  Little did I know that the actions of this criminal would affect me later. 

Although investigations yielded no evidence that Niel had sexually abused any children in Korea, when the story broke, an army of Korean housewives rose up demanding that the government do something.  Most women quit their jobs once they become mothers, so they had time to protest loudly and often, online and in person.  They were a force to be reckoned with, to say the least. Some wanted all foreign residents deported.  Tensions were high.

Under pressure, the government decided to implement two new hiring requirements from foreign teachers.  First, all new teachers would need to submit a recent Criminal Record Check from their home country.  In the U.S., that means an FBI check.   If you ask me, an FBI check provides false security because all it proves is that the holder hasn’t been caught committing a crime.  It’s no guarantee of future behavior. The second requirement was that all foreign teachers take an HIV and STI test upon getting hired and once a year, thereafter…because pedophile equals gay, and gay equals AIDS?  This seemed to appease the protesting ajummas.  Barely.  Things calmed down.   

Foreign teachers were unhappy with these changes.  Especially those who had already been living in Korea.  It was particularly offensive that Korean teachers did not have to submit to HIV and STI tests.  It’s no secret that some Koreans believe that STIs are a foreign disease.   

Another problem that emerged was that of false positive HIV tests. 

A significant percentage of people will have false negative HIV tests due to antibodies they have produced to combat other infections.  A university study has shown that people from certain African countries tend to have a high incidence of false positives.  When a prospective teacher tests HIV positive, Korean medical staff simply re-administer the same test, and, as expected, get the same result.  I heard of a South African teacher whose test came back positive.  Knowing why this may have happened, she requested a different type of HIV test.  They refused.  Her employer, instead of quietly putting her on a plane back home, felt it necessary to announce to any and everyone that she was HIV positive.  Because, you know, foreigners don’t have feelings and don’t deserve privacy or to be treated with dignity. 

As of the summer of 2017, HIV tests are no longer required.  The change was made in response to concerns raised from various sectors, including the UN and the National Human Rights Commission of Korea.  Two years before, the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination told Korea to remove visa requirements for HIV testing, after a teacher filed a complaint to the commission saying that her contract was canceled because she had refused to take a repeat HIV test.

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Other info:

After high school Niel tried to gain admission into a Catholic seminary to become a priest, but didn’t get accepted, so he became a teacher.  Glad the seminary rejected him.  Can you imagine how much more damage he could have caused if he’d become a priest?  Especially with the way many dioceses cover up priests’ crimes for years.  

Neil served five years in a Thai jail, then returned to Canada.  A year later he was arrested because child pornography was found on his laptop and mobile phone.  Since his release from prison in Canada, he is not allowed, among other things, to possess or access any electronic devices.