Rocker Gary Glitter free at last...

[Asylum Steve]

Couldn't help but notice this little tidbit on the wires:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080819/...m_glitter_dc_1

British rocker Gary Glitter has been released from a Vietnamese prison after three years behind bars.

When I managed a record store during the late 70's and early 80's, Glitter (real name Paul Gadd) was quite well-known, at least in the business and glam-rock circles.

And, of course, he lept to immortal fame when his moderate hit, Rock and Roll (Parts 1 & 2), started being played at sporting events, eventually becoming a staple of the "jock rock" lexicon...

They say that there is no such thing as bad publicity. In the case of Glitter, now 63, I'd have to disagree. His jail term in Vietnam was for molesting two 11-year-old-girls. Sicko...

[SmartWombat]

Was discussed on BCC Radio 4 on the way home.
He's likely to go on the sex offenders' register, and to be banned from leaving the country.

[Anbesol]

holy hell, 3 years for molesting 11 year old little girls? He wouldn't have gotten off that easily over here.

Wombat - not allowed to leave the country, as in vietnam? Why would they want to keep him there anyways?

[mjs1973]

Looks like Gary is stuck in Thailand.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapc...and/index.html

[SmartWombat]

The British government want him to come back here.
Where he will be "invited" to sign the Sex Offenders Register.
And the government powers include the ability to restrict his international travel, so he can't leave this country.

On the back of this case, the Home Office is pushing for wider powers of restriction on our travel through "foreign travel orders" (claiming it will be used for offenders only) including banning international travel for up to 5 years and the removal of the passport.

However Gary was in a transit hotel at an airport in Thailand, saying he is ill, demanding medical treatment.
But also says he can not be forced to come home, he has served his sentence in Vietnam and is technically a free man, and is looking to go somewhere else (anywhere else?) other than back to the UK.
Meanwhile the Thai authorities will not let him enter the country, they see him as a danger (rightly IMO).

He flew to Hong Kong, they won't let him in either.


I reckon if he can get a flight to another country, he'll continue to make a run for it.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...ng-903919.html

[SmartWombat]

OK, we can redefine "free" as far as Paul Gadd is concerned.
He's on a flight back to Britain after being returned to Bangkok from Hong Kong.

Despite not having committed the offence in the UK, I'm sure the high profile of his case will result in him being put on the sex offenders register. Even if the home secretary has to change the rules to do it.

At present since the offence was committed outside the UK he may not be subject to a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) or to a foreign travel order (FTO) depending on the interpreration of a "Foreign Offence".

The act (link) says basically if he is an offender then ...
"On the application, the court may make a foreign travel order if it is satisfied that—
(a) the defendant is a qualifying offender, and
(b) the defendant’s behaviour since the appropriate date makes it necessary to make such an order, for the purpose of protecting children generally or any child from serious sexual harm from the defendant outside the United Kingdom."

But the rejection by all of the Asian countries he tried to travel to means he's unlikely to be able to travel from Britain anyhow, even if the British government can't prevent him, who would let him in?

[Overbeyond]

He committed a crime and had his punishment and will now never be free for the rest of his life. This is the world we live in.

[Greg McCary]

If they haven't stop playing his music at sporting events, they should.