一名孌童者多年來不斷炫耀似地把性侵犯兒童的照片上載至互聯網，他用計算機處理照片，把自己的臉孔“執”成螺旋圖案，以為無人知悉其身份。不過天網恢恢，國際刑警組織（Interpol）與德國警方的計算機專家合作，重組這名男子的模樣，更史無前例地呼吁全球公眾協助追緝這名孌童者。

An undated handout photo of an unidentified man is issued by Interpol, October 7, 2007. Interpol have launched an worldwide public appeal to track down a man shown sexually abusing children in images posted on the Internet. The pictures have been digitally altered to disguise the man's face with a swirly pattern, but the German federal police agency, the BKA, worked with Interpol's human trafficking team to produce identifiable image.[Interpol/Reuters]

Interpol said on Monday it was hopeful of identifying a serial pedophile after posting his picture on the Internet in an unprecedented public appeal that drew hundreds of responses from around the world.

"We have already ... hundreds of responses from the public globally as to who this person could be," Kristin Kvigne, assistant director of Interpol's Trafficking in Human Beings Unit, told BBC World television.

"We feel that with the press, the media coverage that this case has been given, we have a very good chance of finding out who he is."

The unidentified man appears in around 200 photographs discovered by police on the Internet, in which he was shown abusing 12 young boys. Investigators believe they were taken in Vietnam and Cambodia, possibly in 2002 and 2003.

The pictures had been digitally altered to hide the man's face behind a swirly pattern. But computer experts at Germany's BKA police agency, which discovered them, were able through forensic work to reproduce recognizable images.

The unscrambled pictures were posted on Interpol's Web site www.interpol.int on Monday, prompting what one official described as an "overwhelming" response.

While it was too early to speak of a breakthrough, she said the world police organization would coordinate with the countries concerned to follow up all new leads.

Interpol said it was making the unique public appeal because, despite extensive efforts through its network of 186 states, the man remained unknown.

"For years, images of this man sexually abusing children have been circulating on the Internet," Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said.

"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 runs a huge database of images of child sex abuse and uses sophisticated software to find connections between them, even analyzing tiny details like wallpaper and fabric patterns in apparently anonymous indoor settings.

Now containing more than 520,000 images submitted by 36 member states, the database has helped police identify and rescue nearly 600 victims from 31 countries to date.

(Agencies)

Vocabulary:

pedophile：戀童癖者

swirly pattern：螺旋形圖案，此處指該名戀童癖者用計算機處理照片，把自己的臉孔“執”成螺旋圖案，隱藏真實身份。

sexual predator：色魔

（英語點津 Celene 編輯）