'Swirl Face' pedophile Christopher Neil sentenced to 5½ years in prison

A B.C. pedophile convicted of producing online child pornography in Cambodia and disguising his face with a swirl has been sentenced to 5½ years in prison.

But because of his time already served, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled Christopher Neil will remain behind bars for just over 14 months.

The full sentence is six months longer than the five years the Crown had requested. Prosecutor Brendan McCabe said he was "very happy with the decision."

Brian McConaghy, a former forensic scientist with the RCMP who worked on this case for years, said he was also pleased with the sentence.

"Obviously when you work with child victims, there is no sentence big enough, but having said that with the precedence in Canada, given the track record of really miserable sentences, the  judge here imposed a sentence that was six months longer. I'm thrilled with that."

Banned from playgrounds, parks

Neil will also be banned for life from playgrounds, parks and anywhere children might congregate, and restricted from using the internet for five years except to seek employment.

That five-year-restriction on internet use concerned McConaghy, who felt it should have been much longer.

"I think it's problematic. There is nothing in Chris Neil's history that indicates that he will change. I mean this is a long track record that goes back many years in terms of  accessing child pornography and creating fantasies that he acts out," he said.

Neil, 41, was nicknamed Swirl Face for the way he obscured his image in photos of him sexually abusing young boys in Southeast Asia. 

In December, he pleaded guilty to five charges laid in 2013, including counts under Canada's rarely used child-sex tourism laws.

The province's Criminal Justice Branch said the guilty pleas pertained to two charges of sexual interference involving two boys under the age of 14 in Cambodia in 2003, one charge of possessing child pornography in Maple Ridge in 2007, and two charges of accessing child pornography in Vancouver in 2013 and 2014.

During the sentencing hearing Neil's lawyer, Mark Thompson, argued that his client has served enough time in jail and further incarceration wouldn't help in his rehabilitation or reintegration.

Thompson presented a report on Neil by a psychologist who supported an argument for release, noting his client poses a low to moderate risk of directly re-offending.