Gary Glitter Refused To Enter Thailand, Declared Persona Non Grata

LaoPo · August 19, 2008

'Heart attack' halts Glitter trip

Former pop star Gary Glitter has refused to board a flight to the UK, saying he was having a heart attack.

He was earlier deported from Vietnam after spending almost three years in jail for sexually abusing two girls.

Glitter, 64, real name Paul Francis Gadd, had arrived at Bangkok in Thailand, where he was to change planes and fly back to the UK.

But he refused to leave the airport, demanding to be allowed to stay in Thailand or another Asian country.

Glitter sold millions of records as a glam rock star in the 1970s, with hits including I'm the Leader of the Gang.

He had been met at Bangkok airport by immigration officials to ensure he caught his connecting flight.

But BBC correspondent Jonathan Head said the British policeman accompanying Glitter had been unable to persuade him to board the plane to the UK.

Glitter has been refused entry to Thailand, despite a plea for medical treatment there.

Our correspondent said Glitter was stuck at the airport, unwilling to face the reception in the UK, but unable to go anywhere else.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7571429.stm --- with images of Glitter on the plane to Bangkok from Vietnam

LaoPo

george · August 20, 2008

Glitter refuses to board UK flight

Not allowed to enter Thailand

BANGKOK: -- Shamed rock star Gary Glitter has been left in limbo after refusing to board a flight to the UK following his release from a Vietnamese prison.

The Foreign Office said Glitter declined to board the flight from Thailand to England and remained in transit, reportedly in a VIP area where travellers can rent small bedrooms airside at Bangkok airport.

In bizarre scenes after landing in Bangkok, Glitter refused to board a connecting flight to Heathrow and demanded to fly to Singapore after Thai officials refused to let him through passport control and into the country.

The 64-year-old, real name Paul Gadd, reportedly argued with Thai immigration officers, insisting he was a "free man", while British embassy officials tried to convince him to board the flight home and a British police officer who was supposed to be accompanying him home looked on.

Glitter then complained of fatigue and was taken to the VIP area.

It is not known when or where Glitter intends to travel to next, but it is unlikely he will remain in Thailand for any length of time after being told he would not be allowed out of Bangkok airport unless it was on an international flight.

Glitter left Vietnam and arrived in Bangkok after a 90-minute Thai Airways flight from Ho Chi Minh City.

He was released from prison after serving two years and nine months of a three-year sentence for abusing two girls aged 10 and 11.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The last information we have is that shortly before the flight to the UK departed he declined to board. We were last aware that he remained in transit.

"He decides where he applies to go and the country or authorities there will decide whether they permit him to enter their territory."

-- The Press Association 2008-08-20

Tywais · August 20, 2008

Gary Glitter relaxes in the business-class section of Thai Airlines between Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Bangkok

Farce as paedophile Gary Glitter refuses to board plane for Britain after 'having a heart attack'

Garry Glitter refused to board a flight to Britain last night, claiming he was suffering a heart attack.

The 64-year-old demanded to be taken to hospital. If he is allowed he will have to pass Thai immigration. He was attended to airside by a doctor on call at the airport and paid for his treatment in cash.

As of early this morning he was still in limbo in the Thai airport, not having been allowed to pass through customs and immigration.

The convicted paedophile was due to be deported home after serving 27 months in a Vietnamese prison for abusing two young girls.

However, after the first leg of his journey - from Ho Chi Minh city to Bangkok - he refused to get on his flight to Heathrow.

For several hours, Glitter, 64, was involved in a bizarre stand-off as Thai officials refused to let him enter their country, and a British Embassy official tried to persuade him to board the plane to London.

His refusal to budge will be an embarrassment to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who had planned to use his return home to announce measures to stop Britons indulging in 'sex tourism'.

She had hoped to gather good PR with a pledge to stop perverts being granted passports.

However, with Britain unable to persuade such a famous paedophile to return to this country - where he could be monitored and controlled - Miss Smith's promise to stop other child abusers from leaving rang somewhat hollow.

She announced that the Government would tighten the law to ban convicted offenders from travelling overseas for up to five years at a time, compared with the current limit of six months.

For the first time, they will be made to surrender their travel documents for the duration of the blanket Foreign Travel Order. But, by simply refusing to come back, Glitter revealed the Home Office's lack of control over British child abusers who choose to remain overseas.

Before his release from Thu Duc prison, the former pop star - real name Paul Gadd - had declared his desire to come back to Britain to claim free heart treatment on the Health Service.

He recently said that he 'needs access to a UK hospital' because conditions 'weren't perfect' in his cell. He was jailed in Vietnam in March 2006 for abusing two girls aged ten and 11, whom he claimed to be teaching English.

Seven years earlier in 1999, he was convicted in Britain of having child pornography on his computer and served two months in prison. Once free he went to Cambodia, but was permanently barred from there in 2002 over alleged sex offences.

Even the mode of Glitter's initial departure from Vietnam was mired in confusion. The government there refused to allow him to leave on a business class flight, on the basis that such an offender should not be 'pampered'. Thai Airlines accepted an economy class booking on Flight TG910 to Heathrow, although Glitter ended up in business class for the first leg to Bangkok.

On the flight from Vietnam, he sat in an aisle seat wearing a baseball cap, flicking through a duty free catalogue.

He even signed autographs for some fellow passengers, but hid behind his scarf to avoid conversation with others who approached him.

The plan was that he would be greeted in Britain at Terminal 3 this morning by about 35 police officers - at an estimated cost of £20,000 - including officers from the Metropolitan Police's Jigsaw sex offenders team and two detectives from the SDC5 child abuse unit.

They would question Glitter at Heathrow Police station - voluntarily, as he would not be under arrest - about where he intended to live, what he planned to do and if he hoped to have any contact with children.

As a convicted paedophile, he would be required to sign the Sex Offenders Register.

But the millionaire paedophile instead caused mayhem at Bangkok airport by stubbornly refusing to get on his flight.

Wearing ripped jeans and a checked scarf, he sulked and argued rather than continue his journey home.

Last night, his petulant performance took on almost comic proportions. When he landed at 10pm local time, Thai immigration officers boarded the flight and informed him he could not enter the country. Glitter told them: 'I have committed no offence in Thailand, why are you refusing me entry?'

Then he said he did not want to stay in Thailand anyway, and demanded to change his London flight for one to Singapore.

Officials told him there were no more flights that night, and took him to an airside airport hotel and put him in £100-a-night room.

It was there he argued with Thai and UK embassy officials, as well as a British police officer who was supposed to be accompanying him to London looked on.

The Thais told Glitter the government there had firmly ruled out letting him out of Bangkok Airport unless he was aboard an international flight. Sudarat Sereewat, a member of the Thai National Human Rights Committee, said: 'We are aware of his passport number and will happily assist Mr Gadd to the intended destination in case he has second thoughts about stopping off here.'

The policeman told the officials that no other country was likely to accept Glitter, so they should do all they could to get him aboard the London flight.

Glitter would not need a visa to go to Singapore, but the government there is likely to be aghast at the prospect of hosting him, and could well block his entry. But short of physically dragging him on to a plane, it seems there is little that the British can do.

And even if the authorities manage-to coax him on to a Heathrow-bound plane, there is still widespread anger about his talk of taking advantage of the NHS.

Dr Michele Elliott, of children's charity Kidscape, said: 'It makes you sick. He doesn't even want to live here, he's just coming to sponge off us. I can think of a lot more worthy people to give treatment to on the NHS.

'He's an exploiter - he exploits children, he'll exploit the NHS.

'He's not remorseful, he's arrogant and unless he gets help he will continue to be a danger to children. He should go and live on a desert island. Nobody wants him.'

- Daily Mail (UK) 20th August 2008

george · August 20, 2008

Gary Glitter declared persona non grata

Persona non grata. British rock star Gary Glitter boards a plane to

Bangkok at Ho Chi Minh City airport - but he has reufsed to fly

back to Britain. Photo: Reuters

BANGKOK: -- THE Thai immigration chief has declared former British glam rocker Gary Glitter "persona non grata" and has threatened to return him to Vietnam.

Lieutenant-General Chatchawal Suksomjit said Glitter had refused to board a plane to London and would not be allowed to enter Thailand.

"We will have to repatriate him back to Vietnam, because he is on our watch list as persona non grata. Thai immigration cannot let him enter,'' Mr Chatchawal said.

"He is still in the transit area,'' at Bangkok international airport, he said.

The convicted pedophile fell ill during the night, missing his flight to London from Bangkok after he left Vietnam on his release from prison.

He was diagnosed with costochondritis, an inflammation of the ribs that causes chest pain, a medical official said.

A doctor met Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, in the airport and he was apparently still in the international transit lounge, she said.

"The doctor prescribed a painkiller and issued a certificate saying he is fit to travel," the official at the clinic said.

Gadd, 64, left Vietnam late yesterday. He had been arrested there in late 2005 and convicted the following year of committing obscene acts with two girls then aged 11 and 12 in the southern resort town of Vung Tau.

The terms of Gadd's 2006 sentence called for his deportation upon his release.

He had been booked on an overnight Thai Airways flight to London, but didn't board the aircraft after he complained about not feeling well.

He had not yet booked a new ticket with the airline, a Thai Airways official said.

Britain has not announced any outstanding charges against the man once famed for his flamboyant bouffant wigs and silver jumpsuits, and Gadd has said he would like to move to Hong Kong or Singapore.

"He has the right to go wherever he wants," said his lawyer, Le Thanh Kinh.

But British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Gadd should not be allowed to leave Britain if he returned.

"We need to control him, and he will be (controlled), once he returns to this country," Ms Smith said on talkSPORT radio.

She said Gadd would be required to sign a sex offenders' register and notify authorities if he wanted to travel abroad.

"It certainly would be my view that with the sort of record that he's got, he shouldn't be travelling anywhere in the world," she said.

"I want Gary Glitter to be controlled whilst he's here and I don't want him to be able to go anywhere else in the world in order to abuse children."

Gadd had several hits in the 1970s including I'm The Leader Of The Gang (I Am!) and Do You Wanna Touch Me?

The anthemic 1972 hit Rock and Roll is still often chanted in British and US sports stadiums.

He was arrested in Britain in 1997 after he took his computer to a repair store and hardcore child pornographic material was found on its hard drive. He was sentenced in 1999 to four months in prison, of which he served two.

Keen to avoid the media, Gadd reportedly moved to Cuba and then Cambodia, where he was expelled in 2002, allegedly for trawling for underage sex.

Having settled in Vietnam, where a British newspaper reported he was living with an underage girl, Gadd was arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport in November 2005 while trying to leave for Thailand.

In March 2006 he was sentenced to three years in jail, the minimum term under Vietnamese law, which was later cut by three months.

Gadd, who paid compensation to the families of both victims, evaded the more serious charge of child rape, which in Vietnam carries a maximum penalty of death by firing squad.

The judge who presided over the closed trial afterwards called Gadd "sick" and "abnormal," detailing disturbing sexual acts with the children.

The singer maintained his innocence during the trial, blamed a media conspiracy and claimed he was teaching the girls English, allowing them to stay overnight because they were scared of ghosts.

Britain's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) this month called for tough action to stop Gadd from travelling abroad again if he returned to his home country.

-- news.com.au 2008-08-20

george · August 20, 2008

Update:

Glitter refuses to leave Bangkok airport

BANGKOK: -- Shamed glam rocker Gary Glitter was stuck at Bangkok airport on Wednesday after refusing to board a flight to Britain following his deportation from Vietnam, where he had spent nearly three years in prison for child sex abuse.

Staff at the Louis Tavern, a small airside transit lounge rest point, said Glitter was still there on Wednesday morning.

Britain's Foreign Office confirmed the 64-year-old Briton's refusal to board the flight, scheduled to leave Thailand around 1 a.m. on Wednesday (7 p.m. British time on Tuesday).

"The last information we have is that shortly before the flight to the UK departed he declined to board. We were last aware that he remained in transit," a spokesman said.

British newspapers, who had reporters on the plane with Glitter as he left Vietnam, said he had collapsed in a bedroom at the Tavern, complaining of heart problems and demanding to be taken to hospital.

He had a series of confrontations with British embassy officials and Thai immigration police, who refused him entry to Thailand because of his conviction in Vietnam for child sex offences, the newspapers reported.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was released from prison in communist Vietnam on Tuesday.

-- Reuters 2008-08-20

george · August 20, 2008

Thai authorities hold rocker Glitter

BANGKOK (CNN): -- Thai authorities detained British rock star Gary Glitter at an airport in Bangkok shortly after he was freed from a Vietnamese prison, having served nearly three years there for child molestation.

Gary Glitter is to board a flight from Bangkok to London after being detained at the Bangkok airport.

Thai police said they were detaining the 64-year-old musician in an airport transit area and planned to ensure he was aboard Thai Airways International's next flight to London.

That flight was scheduled to depart Bangkok on Wednesday at 12:25 p.m. (0525 GMT) and arrive in London at 6:30 p.m. (1730 GMT).

-- CNN 2008-08-20

george · August 20, 2008

Glitter fakes illness in Bangkok to miss UK flight

Shamed rock star deported

BANGKOK: -- Shamed rocker Gary Glitter was stuck at Bangkok airport on Wednesday after faking illness to avoid boarding a flight to Britain after nearly three years in a Vietnamese prison for child sex abuse, Thai police said.

The fallen 64-year-old star, whose real name is Paul Gadd, flew to Bangkok after being booted out of the communist southeast Asian country on Tuesday, the day of his release.

He had a connecting flight to London but refused to board the plane, fearful of the media hounding he is almost certain to receive in Britain, where he has already served jail time for child pornography offences.

Major General Pongdej Chaiprawaj, head of the immigration police at Bangkok airport, said Glitter had faked an ear condition that would have prevented him from flying. "He claimed to have tinnitus in his ears and declined to board the flight to London," Pongdej told Reuters, adding that Glitter was being shadowed by Thai police to prevent him from entering the country.

"He is banned from entering because he was jailed and he could pose a threat to domestic morality," he said. "He is a transit passenger and it is the responsibility of the airline to take him to his final destination."

Glitter had a series of altercations with British embassy and Bangkok immigration officials after being refused entry to Thailand as an "undesirable", leaving him stuck in limbo in a transit lounge called the Louis Tavern.

Staff at the Tavern said he was still there on Wednesday morning, refusing to check out and claiming he was unwell.

British newspapers, who had reporters on the plane with Glitter when he left Vietnam, said he had collapsed in a bedroom at the Tavern, complaining of heart problems and demanding to be taken to hospital.

Glitter served his sentence at Thu Duc prison, 190 km (120 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh City. He left the prison on Tuesday afternoon in a police jeep with blacked-out windows before being put on the flight to Bangkok.

He shielded his face from photographers on the plane with a baseball cap and scarf.

He rose to fame in the 1970s with his trademark bouffant hairstyle, high heels and "glam rock" hits such as "Rock and Roll (Parts 1 & 2)", "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)" and "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I am)".

-- Reuters 2008-08-20

george · August 20, 2008

Bangkok standoff: Terrified Gary Glitter holed up at Thai airport after refusing to fly to Britain

BANGKOK: -- Disgraced rock star Garry Glitter remains in 'no man's land' this morning at Bangkok International Airport after refusing to go back to Britain.

The 64-year-old demanded to be taken to hospital claiming he was suffering a heart attack.

For several hours, Glitter, 64, was involved in a bizarre stand-off as Thai officials refused to let him enter their country, and a British Embassy official tried to persuade him to board the plane to London.

Officials finally gave way when Glitter claimed he was having a heart attack.

He was later diagnosed with costochondritis, an inflammation of the ribs that causes chest pain, an official said.

A doctor attending to him air-side prescribed him painkillers and declared him fit to travel.

The convicted paedophile was due to be deported home after serving 27 months in a Vietnamese prison for abusing two young girls.

However, after the first leg of his journey - from Ho Chi Minh city to Bangkok - he refused to get on his flight to Heathrow.

An British police officer from CEOP, Scotland Yard's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Unit, visited him for 20 minutes as he remain holed up airside in a 'transit' room but afterwards officials said he was still refusing to budge, complaining that Thailand would be in breach of human rights if they sent him home.

Glitter, real name Paul Francis Gadd, did not wake up this morning for the first departures to Hong Kong and Singapore, his destinations of choice.

Thai Immigration officials then called in officers of Thai International Airways blaming them for what has become an international farce; with Glitter attempting to get into Thailand by what officials believe may have been exaggerated illnesses.

Britain's Ambassador to Thailand said that any decision as to what would happen to Glitter was totally up to the current host country Thailand.

"It's a mess," said a Thai Immigration official. "Glitter had been warned that he could legally only stay in the country for 12 hours. My boss is getting impatient with him now."

The 12 hours deadline passed today at 10.15 am Thai time today.

Sudarat Sereewat, Thailand's well known paedophile tracker, and Secretary General of 'Fight Against Child Exploitation' and also a member of the Thai National Human Rights Committee said: "I have been in touch with the authorities. The considered sending Glitter back to Vietnam if he continues to refuse to go to London. Vietnam did not notify the Thai authorities they were reporting Mr. Gadd to Thailand.

"But that seems a poor option at the moment, as the Vietnamese authorities will probably just send him right back."

His refusal to budge will be an embarrassment to Jacqui Smith, who had planned to use his return home to announce measures to stop Britons indulging in 'sex tourism'.

The Home Secretary had hoped to gather good PR with a pledge to stop perverts being granted passports.

However, with Britain unable to persuade such a famous paedophile to return to this country - where he could be monitored and controlled - Miss Smith's promise to stop other child abusers from leaving rang somewhat hollow.

She announced that the Government would tighten the law to ban convicted offenders from travelling overseas for up to five years at a time, compared with the current limit of six months.

For the first time, they will be made to surrender their travel documents for the duration of the blanket Foreign Travel Order. But, by simply refusing to come back, Glitter revealed the Home Office's lack of control over British child abusers who choose to remain overseas.

Before his release from Thu Duc prison, the former pop star - real name Paul Gadd - had declared his desire to come back to Britain to claim free heart treatment on the Health Service.

He recently said that he 'needs access to a UK hospital' because conditions 'weren't perfect' in his cell.

He was jailed in Vietnam in March 2006 for abusing two girls aged ten and 11, whom he claimed to be teaching English.

Seven years earlier in 1999, he was convicted in Britain of having child pornography on his computer and served two months in prison. Once free he went to Cambodia, but was permanently barred from there in 2002 over alleged sex offences.

Even the mode of Glitter's initial departure from Vietnam was mired in confusion.

The government there refused to allow him to leave on a business class flight, on the basis that such an offender should not be 'pampered'.

Thai Airlines accepted an economy class booking on Flight TG910 to Heathrow, although Glitter ended up in business class for the first leg to Bangkok.

On the flight from Vietnam, he sat in an aisle seat wearing a baseball cap, flicking through a duty free catalogue.

He even signed autographs for some fellow passengers, but hid behind his scarf to avoid conversation with others who approached him.

The plan was that he would be greeted in Britain at Terminal 3 this morning by about 35 police officers - at an estimated cost of £20,000 - including officers from the Metropolitan Police's Jigsaw sex offenders team and two detectives from the SDC5 child abuse unit.

They would question Glitter at Heathrow Police station - voluntarily, as he would not be under arrest - about where he intended to live, what he planned to do and if he hoped to have any contact with children.

As a convicted paedophile, he would be required to sign the Sex Offenders Register.

But the millionaire paedophile instead caused mayhem at Bangkok airport by stubbornly refusing to get on his flight.

Wearing ripped jeans and a checked scarf, he sulked and argued rather than continue his journey home.

Last night, his petulant performance took on almost comic proportions.

When he landed at 10pm local time, Thai immigration officers boarded the flight and informed him he could not enter the country.

Glitter told them: 'I have committed no offence in Thailand, why are you refusing me entry?'

Then he said he did not want to stay in Thailand anyway, and demanded to change his London flight for one to Singapore.

Officials told him there were no more flights that night, and took him to an airside airport hotel and put him in £100-a-night room.

It was there he argued with Thai and UK embassy officials, as well as a British police officer who was supposed to be accompanying him to London looked on.

The Thais told Glitter the government there had firmly ruled out letting him out of Bangkok Airport unless he was aboard an international flight. Sudarat Sereewat, a member of the Thai National Human Rights Committee, said: 'We are aware of his passport number and will happily assist Mr Gadd to the intended destination in case he has second thoughts about stopping off here.'

The policeman told the officials that no other country was likely to accept Glitter, so they should do all they could to get him aboard the London flight.

Glitter would not need a visa to go to Singapore, but the government there is likely to be aghast at the prospect of hosting him, and could well block his entry.

But short of physically dragging him on to a plane, it seems there is little that the British can do.

And even if the authorities manage-to coax him on to a Heathrowbound plane, there is still widespread anger about his talk of taking advantage of the NHS.

Dr Michele Elliott, of children's charity Kidscape, said: 'It makes you sick. He doesn't even want to live here, he's just coming to sponge off us. I can think of a lot more worthy people to give treatment to on the NHS.

'He's an exploiter - he exploits children, he'll exploit the NHS.

'He's not remorseful, he's arrogant and unless he gets help he will continue to be a danger to children. He should go and live on a desert island. Nobody wants him.'

-- Daily Mail, UK 2008-08-20

Maestro · August 20, 2008

Thailand denies entry to jail-house rocker Glitter

By Deutsche Presse Agenture

Bangkok - Thailand on Wednesday denied entry to Gary Glitter after the former British glam rock star refused to board a plane to London after finishing a jail term in Vietnam for sexually abusing two preteen girls.

Glitter, who was put on board a Thai International Airways flight to Bangkok Tuesday after being released following two years and nine months in a Vietnamese prison, deplaned at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport, where he refused to board his flight to London, claiming to be suffering chest pains.

"He is still in transit, doing nothing," said Lieutenant General Chatchawal Suksomjit, Thai immigration commissioner.

"If he tries to enter Thailand, we can arrest him, detain him and deport him," Chatchawal told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The immigration chief said that as long as Glitter remained in transit, it was the responsibility of Thai Airways to get him on a flight back to Vietnam or on to London.

"But he has said he will not go to London," Chatchawal said.

...

Continued here: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/08/20...es_30081026.php

Maestro · August 20, 2008

Gary Gloater

From VIRGINIA WHEELER

in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Published: Today

SMUG paedophile Gary Glitter clenches his fists as he is released from jail in Vietnam yesterday — just like he did when he was an idolised glam rocker.

Celebration ... evil sex pervert Gary Glitter clenches fists as he is released from jail

Pop pose ... Gary Glitter in his days as glam rock idol

Glitter, 64, boarded a flight to Bangkok yesterday with a connection to London, insisting he was heading home.

But this morning the shamed rocker was in limbo after refusing to board a flight to the UK.

After landing in the Thai capital yesterday he made a dramatic bid to go to ground.

First, he demanded to be allowed into Thailand.

Then, when Thai authorities refused, he insisted he was a “free man” and would head for Singapore.

Glitter was advised there was no flight to the country until much later.

The ’70s singer then claimed he was having a heart attack — and two Thai cops took him to an airport VIP area which has small bedrooms.

He rented one for eight hours for £100.

He was declared "persona non grata" by Thai immigration officals who are threatening to send him back to Vietnam.

Flustered British officials were called in and a UK cop sent to escort Glitter home was left helpless.

Source: www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1581322.ece

Maestro · August 20, 2008

Thailand refuses Gary Glitter

Source: Associated Press

george · August 20, 2008

Thailand officials to deport laughing Glitter 'as soon as possible' despite heart attack claims

BANGKOK: -- Thai immigration officials are to deport disgraced rock star Gary Glitter back to Britain as soon as possible, despite his claims of ill health.

He had originally been threatened with detention by Thai officials after he refused to board a flight to Britain from Bangkok International Airport.

But now Thai authorities have said that Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, will be forced to board a plane taking him back to Britain - whether he likes it or not.

'We are barring entry to Paul Francis Gadd and will be deporting him to his home country, England, unconditionally and even if he does not wish to board the plane,' police said in a statement.

"We are now waiting to return him to England as soon as possible."

The 64-year-old refused to board a flight back to Britain and last night demanded to be taken to hospital claiming he was suffering a heart attack.

For several hours last night , Glitter, 64, was involved in a bizarre stand-off as Thai officials refused to let him enter their country, and British Embassy staff tried to persuade him to board the plane to London.

Officials finally gave way when Glitter claimed he was having a heart attack.

He was later diagnosed with costochondritis, an inflammation of the ribs that causes chest pain, an official said.

A doctor attending to him air-side prescribed him painkillers and declared him fit to travel.

This morning, police and senior immigration officials in Thailand said Glitter had been denied entry into the country after failing to board the flight to London.

Police Major General Phongdej Chaiprawat said Glitter was being confined to a transit lounge at the airport in Bangkok.

He said: 'Officials concerned are working through the process of putting him on the plane to take him out of the country, but if he continues to refuse to leave then he will confined in the (airport transit) area temporarily before being taken into a detention centre.'

The convicted paedophile was due to be deported home after serving 27 months in a Vietnamese prison for abusing two young girls.

However, after the first leg of his journey - from Ho Chi Minh city to Bangkok - he refused to get on his flight to Heathrow.

An British police officer from CEOP, Scotland Yard's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Unit, visited him for 20 minutes as he remain holed up airside in a 'transit' room but afterwards officials said he was still refusing to budge, complaining that Thailand would be in breach of human rights if they sent him home.

Glitter, who rented a transit lounge room for the night, did not wake up this morning for the first departures to Hong Kong and Singapore, his destinations of choice.

During his flight the disgraced pop star told reporters that he was planning to write a book that would 'prove he was an innocent man'.

“God, am I happy to be leaving Vietnam and that jail. I should never have been in there. It has been a nightmare. Every second. I was set up, that’s all I will say.

“But you wait. All the time I’ve been inside I’ve been preparing for my book. It’s all here in my head.

“I’m an innocent man and my book will show you that.

Glitter told The Sun: 'I'm not worried at all about coming home to England. Why would I be? I'm an innocent man. I think people realise that. I think I'll be made welcome.

Thai Immigration officials then called in officers of Thai International Airways blaming them for what has become an international farce; with Glitter attempting to get into Thailand by what officials believe may have been exaggerated illnesses.

Britain's Ambassador to Thailand said that any decision as to what would happen to Glitter was totally up to the current host country Thailand.

"It's a mess," said a Thai Immigration official. "Glitter had been warned that he could legally only stay in the country for 12 hours. My boss is getting impatient with him now."

The 12 hour deadline passed today at 10.15 am Thai time.

Sudarat Sereewat, Thailand's well known paedophile tracker, and Secretary General of 'Fight Against Child Exploitation' and also a member of the Thai National Human Rights Committee said: "I have been in touch with the authorities.

'They considered sending Glitter back to Vietnam if he continues to refuse to go to London. Vietnam did not notify the Thai authorities they were reporting Mr. Gadd to Thailand.

"But that seems a poor option at the moment, as the Vietnamese authorities will probably just send him right back."

His refusal to budge will be an embarrassment to Jacqui Smith, who had planned to use his return home to announce measures to stop Britons indulging in 'sex tourism'.

The Home Secretary had hoped to gather good PR with a pledge to stop perverts being granted passports.

However, with Britain unable to persuade such a famous paedophile to return to this country - where he could be monitored and controlled - Miss Smith's promise to stop other child abusers from leaving rang somewhat hollow.

She announced that the Government would tighten the law to ban convicted offenders from travelling overseas for up to five years at a time, compared with the current limit of six months.

This morning the Home Secretary said that Britain could not enforce Glitter's return but had to plan for what would happen if he did come here.

She repeated that his was the type of case where it was "pretty hard to imagine it would be legitimate for him to travel abroad again".

She will announce measures today to curtail movement around the world by convicted sex offenders.

She told GMTV: "I don't want any sex offenders in this country, but the point is, Vietnamese officials have deported him to the UK, so, as we do whenever sex offenders return to this country, we need to plan ... for what happens when people return."

She added: "Never mind his individual case, anybody who is returning to the UK in these sorts of circumstances would be met at the airport by police officers, would be served with an order which effectively puts them on to the sex offenders register."

Ms Smith said the system for dealing with sex offenders in this country is already very strong, but she plans to strengthen it.

There are plans to issue more foreign travel orders, stopping sex offenders travelling abroad by having their passport taken off them.

"One of the things we have learned generally about sex offenders is they do want to travel to places where they can exploit children."

Not everybody on the sex offenders register would have their passport taken away.

"If there is evidence the person is travelling abroad to abuse children, we can get an order that stops them travelling. There should be more of those."

Asked if Glitter was that sort of case, she said: "In every single case, the court has to make the decision, but this is the type of case where I find it pretty hard to imagine it is legitimate for him to travel abroad again."

Asked if she was comfortable with him using the NHS and taking up police time, she said: "I think it's right that we use police time to monitor sex offenders.

"If you are a British citizen, you have the right to use the NHS, whatever we think about an individual, and this is a pretty despicable person."

For the first time, they will be made to surrender their travel documents for the duration of the blanket Foreign Travel Order. But, by simply refusing to come back, Glitter revealed the Home Office's lack of control over British child abusers who choose to remain overseas.

Before his release from Thu Duc prison, the former pop star - real name Paul Gadd - had declared his desire to come back to Britain to claim free heart treatment on the Health Service.

He recently said that he 'needs access to a UK hospital' because conditions 'weren't perfect' in his cell.

jacqui smith

Embarrassment: Home Secretary Jacqui Smith

He was jailed in Vietnam in March 2006 for abusing two girls aged ten and 11, whom he claimed to be teaching English.

Seven years earlier in 1999, he was convicted in Britain of having child pornography on his computer and served two months in prison.

Once free he went to Cambodia, but was permanently barred from there in 2002 over alleged sex offences.