Those acquaintances including friends and family member of suspected pedophile Christopher Paul Neil said the Canadian was fun to hang out. They totally didn't realize that underneath the seemingly harmless exterior, Christopher Pau Neil was a paedophile who travelled to Cambodia and Vietnam to abuse young boys.
One informant was Amy Bowler, a Canadian teacher who said she contacted the international police organisation after it released four photos of Mr Neil last week.
She knew him from the South Korean city of Yongin, where they both taught. In a telephone interview, Ms Bowler told the Associated Press that Mr Neil often went out with her circle of expatriates, that he loved to sing karaoke, and that none of her friends suspected anything sinister about him.
''He had a number of close friends. He came out regularly for drinks. He was certainly not a pariah,'' Ms Bowler said. ''He was outgoing, but he wasn't very smooth.''
Another acquaintance who recognised Mr Neil was Kia Pearson, a New Zealander who said they taught together at the Kwangju Foreign School in the South Korean city of Gwangju.
''We were kind of good buddies,'' Mr Pearson said in a telephone interview.
''We used to enjoy watching him sing. He was quite the entertainer. He was a lot of fun.''
Both Ms Bowler and Mr Pearson said they first came across Mr Neil on an internet forum for English teachers called Dave's ESL Cafe. Mr Neil used a pseudonym, Peter Jackson, when communicating online on the site, they said.
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In Canada, his brother urged him to turn himself in. ''My mother is devastated and the family is in shock,'' said Matthew Neil from the family home in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. Capt Hope Carr, a public affairs officer for Canada's military, filled in details of Mr Neil's background, saying he had worked as a chaplain and counsellor for youths aged 12 to 18 from 1998 to 2000 at a cadet training centre in Nova Scotia.