RICHMOND (NEWS1130) – We won’t find out what conditions a convicted pedophile will have to live under in Canada until Wednesday.  Christopher Paul Neil is from Maple Ridge and spent the past five years in a Thai prison for sexually assaulting young boys, one as young as nine-years-old.

Neil was in court for a hearing that was expected to add strict conditions to his release, but he spent most of the morning consulting with his lawyer in private.

Advocates for child safety say men like Neil who commit crimes abroad need to be monitored when they return to this country.

“We need to be taking it seriously and you guys (the media) need to be watching this on behalf of society,” says Brian McConaghy, founding director of Ratanak International.  The group protects and rehabilitates the victims of child sex abuse in Cambodia.

“I think the public has the right to know when individuals are in their midst that place them at risk,” he adds, explaining why he believes the court has the right to impose conditions on the 37-year-old former teacher.

Neil is not facing any criminal charges in this country, but the convicted pedophile was taken into custody Friday when he arrived at YVR.  He was picked up under an obscure section of the Criminal Code dealing with public safety.

The RCMP believes he could be a risk to re-offend and the head of a child advocacy group agrees.

“I do not ever believe that with a pedophile or predator that it’s only one time,” says Chris Danielson with Put Kids First. “Obviously he’s a predator of children.”

After 12 years of trying to raise awareness and educate parents and children about sexual predators, she believes our justice system is still far too lenient.

“Canada’s known worldwide as ‘predator friendly’. No, we haven’t come very far unfortunately. If you’re a predator of children, where do you want to be? Texas or BC?”

RCMP Cpl. Mat Van Laer says that while there are laws aimed at prosecuting Canadians who commit crimes out of the country, they don’t apply to Neil who has already served time for his offence.

“It’s a little bit like this commonly known double-jeopardy issue,” says Van Laer. “We’re not going to be convicting someone for a similar crime that [they've] been convicted of before, elsewhere. He spent a significant amount of time in a Thailand prison for the crime that he’s committed.