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Gary Glitter jailed for three years for child abuse in Vietnam
Thu Mar 2, 10:42 PM ET
Former British glam rocker Gary Glitter has been sentenced to three years in prison by a Vietnamese court for sexually abusing two underage girls.
The disgraced 1970s pop star was accused of molesting two local girls aged 11 and 12 last year at his rented seaside bungalow in the southern resort town of Vung Tau, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.
Glitter, 61, the first foreigner to face a sex crimes trial in post-war Vietnam, has maintained his innocence and claimed he was teaching the girls English, allowing them to stay overnight because they were scared of ghosts.
When he was led into the court building Thursday at the start of his closed-door trial, Glitter beamed broadly at the jostling media pack, flashed a victory sign and yelled "Innocent!" when asked how he felt.
The flamboyant one-time star -- wearing a black tee-shirt, a red bandana and sunglasses -- arrived early Friday soon after 9:40 am (0240 GMT), with the verdict due to be delivered shortly thereafter.
The singer, who served two months in a British jail in 1999 for downloading child pornography, was to face Vietnam's justice system like any other defendant, said senior Provincial People's Committee official Nguyen Ngoc Hung.
"Everyone -- both Vietnamese and foreigners -- who violates the law will be judged under Vietnamese law," he told a media briefing Thursday.
Glitter has been charged with "committing obscene acts with children" after he was arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport on November 19 while trying to board a flight to Thailand.
The faded star, born Paul Francis Gadd, has since paid 2,000 dollars' compensation to the family of each alleged victim. His lawyer Le Thanh Kinh has denied the payments were bribes intended to reduce the charges.
In Thursday's hearing, the relatives of one victim demanded an additional 3,000 dollars from Glitter, while the second girl's family said it would let the court decide on additional payments.
If found guilty and jailed, Glitter would return to his spartan cell behind the mouldy walls and barbed wire along with 400 other inmates in a jail near Vung Tau and possibly be moved to a larger prison elsewhere in the communist country.
It has been a long fall for the ex-rocker once known for his bouffant wigs, extravagant makeup and silver jump suits, who in the 1970s glam era scored a string of hits including "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)".
His trial in the Ba Ria Vung Tau Provincial People's Court is the latest station in an international odyssey that started after the singer's release halfway through his four-month jail sentence in 1999.
Pursued by the British media, Glitter reportedly moved to Cuba, then resettled in Cambodia, where he lived on and off for years before he was expelled in 2002 after reportedly trawling for child sex.
He was found by a London newspaper last year, which said he was living with a teenage girl in Vung Tau, a resort and oil town notorious for its 400 bars and massage parlours, 130 kilometres (80 miles) southeast of Ho Chi Minh City.
Friday's verdict and sentencing hearing were to be open to the media and to British diplomats, who have visited Glitter six times since his arrest and say he is in good health and being treated well.
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It's Baltimore, gentlemen; the gods will not save you.
Baltimore is a town where everyone thinks they’re normal, but they’re totally insane. In New York, they think they’re crazy, but they’re perfectly normal. --John Waters
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