Glitter gets 3 years in Vietnam jail

Glitter gets 3 years in Vietnam jail
Fri Mar 3, 2006 6:02 AM GMT
By Ed Cropley
VUNG TAU, Vietnam (Reuters) -
A Vietnamese court sentenced "glam rocker"
Gary Glitter to three years in jail on Friday for
molesting two young girls, although if he wins
early parole he could be free by Christmas.
Judge Hoang Thanh Tung described in graphic
detail the offences committed by the 1970s
pop icon in the southern resort town of
Vung Tau, drawing gasps from ordinary
Vietnamese packed into the courtroom along
with dozens of foreign reporters.
"The court pronounces the defendant,
Paul Francis Gadd, also known as
Gary Glitter, guilty of engaging in lewd acts
with children," said the judge, dressed in
a sober black suit and dark blue tie.
The black-shirted 61-year-old Glitter, who
had been told by the judge to remove his red
bandana at the start of the 25-minute
hearing, stared ahead impassively as the
sentence was read out, before being buried
in a scrum of photographers.
But he lashed out afterwards at an
unnamed British newspaper he blamed
for his troubles.
"It's a conspiracy. You know who.
One of Great Britain's newspapers," he told
Reuters as he was escorted into a prison
van by 10 green-uniformed policemen.
Defence lawyer Le Thanh Kinh said Glitter,
who is already a registered sex offender
in Britain for a 1999 child porn conviction,
would be eligible for parole one year from
when he was first detained, in
November 2005, as is customary in Vietnam.
The three months he has already spent in
prison will also be deducted from his
sentence. He would be deported from the
communist southeast Asian nation at the
end of his sentence, the judge said.
Glitter had 15 days to appeal but had yet to
decide whether to do so, Kinh told reporters.
"That comes from him, not from me," he said.
"NOT A NORMAL PERSON"
Chief investigator Colonel Nguyen Duc
Trinh said he had also recovered 2,231
images of child porn from Glitter's computer
and 31 video clips, opening the way for
prosecution by police in Britain if he ends
up there after his deportation.
The files were "mainly children making love
to each other, or naked children", he told
reporters. "Biologically, Glitter is not a
normal person. A normal person would
never store such photos."
British police, who can prosecute Britons
for child sex crimes committed abroad, had
questioned Glitter in jail and been in contact
with Vietnamese authorities, Trinh said.
He would not divulge details of their
discussions.
Glitter is likely to serve his sentence in his
home for the past three months -- a two-man
cell inside a windswept concrete prison,
surrounded by AK-47-toting guards,
mould-encrusted walls and coils of rusting
razor wire.
However, British consular officials given
access to the fallen pop icon said he
remained in good health.
They had no complaints about his handling
in Vietnam since he was arrested at
Ho Chi Minh airport trying to flee the country.
"He is treated well under Vietnamese law
and that's all we can ask for.
We are in Vietnam, not in the U.K.,"
said Paul Higham, British vice-consul in
Ho Chi Minh City.
"As far as I know, he is well."
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