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Shamed Glitter to fly back to the UK
Amar Singh, Evening Standard14 Aug 2008
Convicted child molester Gary Glitter will be deported back to Britain after being released from prison in Vietnam next week, his lawyer said today.
The 64-year-old former glam rocker, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was convicted of obscene acts with children in March 2006 and sentenced to three years in prison.
The incidents involved two Vietnamese girls, aged 10 and 11, from the southern coastal city of Vung Tau.
He will be released on Tuesday. Le Thanh Kinh said: "Police booked his ticket from Ho Chi Minh City to London and I have already paid for the ticket on his behalf."
He has been serving his term at Thu Duc prison in Binh Thuan province, 87 miles north of Ho Chi Minh City. Last year he had three months cut from his sentence for good behaviour.
Kinh said Glitter told him he did not want to go back to Britain, but Vietnamese law requires he be returned to his home country.
In a recent interview with a Vietnamese newspaper, Glitter said he intended to relaunch his singing career in Singapore or Hong Kong.
It is now thought he will return to Bristol, where he lived prior to his first arrest in 1999.
Kinh said that Glitter would be escorted by Vietnamese police onto a waiting aircraft-and that he had requested not to hold any press conference.
Glitter was convicted in Britain in 1999 of possessing more than 4,000 child pornography pictures and served half of a four-month jail term.
He later went to Cambodia but was expelled from that country in 2002, although officials there did not specify a crime or file charges against him.
Glitter found fame in the Seventies with songs such as Rock And Roll (Part 2), which is still played at many sporting events.
There have been rumours that he intends to bring out an autobiography and he continues to earn significantly from royalties.
The Foreign Office confirmed it had been notified of his imminent release and children's charities have called for strict restrictions to be placed on Glitter when he returns.
