Charity wants Glitter travel curbed

The NSPCC called on the Government to ban Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, from making foreign trips as a sex tourist.

His lawyer Le Thanh Kinh said the star can travel wherever he wants, but intends to return to Britain when he is released from Thu Duc jail in south Vietnam on Tuesday.

Glitter was jailed in March 2006 by a Vietnam court for sexually abusing two girls aged 10 and 11. If he does fly back to Britain, Glitter will be met at the airport by police and required to sign the register of sex offenders.

NSPCC policy advisor Dr Zoe Hilton said: "It's not a done deal that he can go wherever he likes given his record. I would hope that the authorities would make sure that he does not slip off to another country.

"Once you're overseas you can just go from country to country. We know that some of the most high-risk offenders do that."

She said paedophiles who escape abroad can then set up "hubs" for other offenders to visit.

Current legislation allows Foreign Travel Orders to be made against sex offenders banning them from trips overseas, but the NSPCC said these are "ineffective" because they must be renewed every six months.

Each time it must be proved with new evidence that the offender poses a risk to children, and the orders only apply to one destination.

As well as a ban on all paedophiles travelling abroad, the charity wants a better tracking system to stop them "country-hopping" and disappearing.