SURREY (NEWS1130) – For more than a decade Chris Danielsen, the founder of the Surrey-based organization Put Kids First, has devoted her life to learning all about keeping kids safe and raising awareness about the issue of child protection from predators.

Christopher Paul Neil, a convicted pedophile who was arrested in Thailand years ago for sexually assaulting a boy, returned to Canada on Friday. He was at the centre of an international manhunt and is currently being held over fears he might re-offend.

He is not facing charges in Canada and is expected to be let go with conditions. This makes Danielsen very worried.

“That it’s unacceptable. Obviously he’s a predator of children. If he’s travelling and doing that, he is what he is,” stresses Danielsen. “This is not the only time he has done that. I do not ever believe that a pedophile or predator its only one time. I heard a stat that they abuse 50 kids before they’re caught and 150 before they’re stopped.”

She is hoping that Neil isn’t released in order to protect children in her community and all over the province.

“It’s absolutely sickening that this guy might get out. If he’s sick, he shouldn’t be let out. We need to start putting our kids first. It is absolutely not fair that our kids have to live with predators around them that look just like them.”

Danielsen calls Canada a “predator-friendly country” which is why she’s pushing for better laws and policing.

“Do I think we’ve come along way? You know, not nearly far enough. If people knew what was going on in our country, they’d be horrified…so we haven’t come very far unfortunately. For the amount of people fighting [to stop predators], it doesn’t even come close to what we need.”

As long as there are pedophiles around, Danielsen says she’ll continue to give talks at PACs and Rotary club meetings about the problem, educating people about how to prevent children from getting harmed both on and offline.