Glitter 'bid to avoid sex register'

Glitter, 63, told his Vietnamese lawyer Le Thanh Kinh that he did not want to return to Britain because he would be listed on the register, the South China Morning Post said.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was convicted in March 2006 of committing obscene acts with children. The incidents involved two Vietnamese girls aged 10 and 11 from the southern coastal city of Vung Tau.

The Post said Glitter had asked about starting a new life in Hong Kong where there was no sex offenders' register to track his movements.

"He doesn't know where he will live if he is released but he has spoken to Mr Kinh about moving to Hong Kong," a friend of the lawyer was quoted as saying.

"He told Mr Kinh on one of his visits, 'It's a big city where I can go around without being noticed. But I'll be able to get English food there'."

Glitter was taken to hospital early this month for diarrhoea and a heart condition.

British embassy officials and Vietnamese prison authorities are discussing whether Glitter should be released during an annual prisoner amnesty just before the Lunar New Year, known as Tet, or under a sentence reduction on humanitarian grounds, the paper says.

His three-year jail sentence was cut by three months for good behaviour under Tet last year. He is due to complete his term in August.

He was convicted in Britain in 1999 of possessing child pornography, and served half of a four-month jail term. He later went to Cambodia but was expelled from that country in 2002. Cambodian officials did not specify a crime or file charges against him.