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Swirl Face
Swirl Face was the nickname given to Christopher Paul Neil, a pedophile who uploaded pictures to the internet of himself abusing boys with his face obscured by the Photoshop twirl function.
Summary
Swirl Face, also known as Mr. Swirl and Vico was a Canadian man who, after being rejected from the preisthood, travelled across Southeast Asia to become an English Teacher and molest young boys. In the 200 pictures uploaded to the internet of him committing this abuse he obscured his face using the twirl tool on Photoshop, and shockingly this was to be his downfall.
The issue with using any swirl function is that it is essentially loss less, as you are just moving pixels as opposed to altering them (as you would if you were to black them out using something as simple as MS Paint), so anyone who wants to unswirl the image can do so simply by adding a minus sign to the angle they wish to swirl to, or simply flip the image and swirl until the image is restored. This was the technique reportedly used on the pictures, which were then placed on the Interpol website with a plea for anyone who could identify the individual.
Rise to fame
On October 7, 2007 an interview was conducted on the CBS News show 60 Minutes Sunday with the Secretary General of Interpol, Ron Noble. During this interview, the face of Christopher Neil was shown, which led to his identification by a member of the public and the Interpol Operation Vico, which tracked him down to Cambodia and then Thailand.
Current status
Swirl Face was arrested on October 19, 2007 in the Isan region of Thailand, where he had fled from Cambodia upon discovering that he had been positively identified. He was charged and sentenced to 39 months in prison as well as a $1,780 fine for child molestation. This sentence was then extended by a further six years after he stood trial for abusing another child. He is still serving his time in a thai prison as of this writing.
Images
 The swirl in action |
 In custody |
 Rumour has it he had an accomplice |
External Links
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