Former glam rock superstar Gary Glitter will be tried in Vietnam for commiting obscene acts upon children, dodging the more serious charge of child rape, which carries a potential penalty of death by firing squad, The Globe and Mail and Ireland Online are reporting this week. The trial is scheduled for February.
Child abuse and child pornography have been a recurring issue with the 61 year old Glitter (Paul Francis Gadd); in 1999, he was sentenced to four months imprisonment (and served two) for possessing over 4000 hardcore pornographic images of children as young as two on his computer.
Glitter's biggest hit should be instantly familiar to anyone reading this; the tribal-sounding stompfest "Rock & Roll, Pt. 2", co-written with producer Mike Leander, is played at nearly every sporting event in the country, is featured in nearly any movie that has a sports scene, and is played by every marching band in any stadium.
While his popularity in America was limited to two top-40 singles in 1972 (including "Rock & Roll, Pt. 2"), and his best selling album, Glitter (1972) peaked at #186, he remained popular and fairly beloved in England until his crimes were revealed.
Since then, there have been few who have fallen so far so fast; while details of Glitter's past six years have been sketchy at best, what is known is pretty disgraceful; herein lays the story of ultimate rock star narcissism, taken to a tawdry, ugly, dead end.
His downfall began in 1997, when he took his computer to a Bristol computer shop for repairs. On it, a technician found images of hardcore child pornography and called police; the police characterized the photographs as "hard-core, sick and degrading" involving children as young as two being sexually abused, tortured, bound, gagged and blindfolded. In 1999 he was sentenced to four months in Horfield Prison, Bristol, and was released after two months.
Since his release, his whereabouts have raised red flags. He moved to Cuba briefly in 2000, but when the British press became aware of his location, he relocated to Cambodia.
In 2003 he was deported from Cambodia after allegations of child abuse cropped up there.
Glitter was arrested on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2005 as he tried to leave Vietnam for Bangkok from Tan Son Hnat airport in Ho Chi Minh City. The incident for which he was arrested involved sexual relations with a 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl at his home. Although the younger girl has admitted Glitter paid her the equivalent of $9.50 for sex, she is below the age of legal consent. In all, six females in Vietnam between the ages of 11 and 23 have admitted to having sex with Glitter, according to Associated Press.
Article comments
1 - uao
Hmmm. After posting this on my blog yesterday, I've gotten an enormous uptick in people using search terms like "young girl sex" and "sex with young girls". Strangely, so far they have been from the following countries: Saudi Arabia (three times), Bahrain, Qatar, and UAE.
I wonder what that means...
Well guys, if that's how you got there, take a good look at Glitter; that's what may await you...
2 - Temple Stark
it means Michael Jackson and Gary Glitter will release that Katrina fundraising ditty any day now. ....
That second balder picture I'm assuming is Gee Gee as well?
3 - uao
The second picture is Portrait of A Rock Star as Disgraced Old Man.
I still can find some measure of pity in my heart somewhere for Michael Jackson; in many ways, he's a victim too (although that doesn't excuse anything he might or might not have done)
Hard to drum up any pity for Glitter. After his national humiliation in 1999, you'd think he would have retired to a cave in northern Scotland perhaps, and live off his royalties.
No, he made a beeline for the countries where he could get his hands on kids.
Nobody in the U.K. seems to have any problem with him being tried by a Vietnamese court either, I've noticed.
4 - Bennett
Sound like Gary has some long hard years ahead. I don't know how Vietnamese convicts feel about child molesters, but I doubt he'll be having much fun in prison.
5 - zameer
hi i bout every