In one of my favorite national security/thriller movies, No Way Out, the Pentagon reconstructs a damaged photo negative to track down a man they think is a spy who murdered the Defense Secretary's mistress. The suspected killer -- who is in fact a naval officer assigned to the Pentagon -- must find the real killer as the digital image of him slowly comes into focus.
Now we have a real life example of this sort of photo reconstruction (although with a very different story surrounding it). Authorities have reconstructed a digitally altered picture of a man accused of being a sexual predator, prompting a worldwide manhunt code-named Vico. This is, as the Interpol news release puts it, is "the first time the organization has made such an appeal."
Although the original photographs had been digitally altered by him or his accomplices to disguise his face, specialists from the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) in Germany working with INTERPOL’s Trafficking in Human Beings unit have been able to produce an identifiable picture.
Despite extensive global efforts to identify and locate this individual through INTERPOL’s network of 186 National Central Bureaus and specialist units, the man’s identity and nationality still remain unknown.
'For years images of this man sexually abusing children have been circulating on the Internet. 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,' said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.
'We have very good reason to believe that he travels the world in order to sexually abuse and exploit vulnerable children and as an 186-member country police organization, INTERPOL is uniquely positioned to co-ordinate this global effort to identify and bring him to justice,' added Mr Noble.
