Gary Glitter Charged

[womble]

It looks like Glitter is going down for a very long time, under vietnamesse law he could even face a firing squad. Vietnam is a communist country and will certainly not want to be labelled as a sex tourism country. I should imagine he'll be punished extremely heavily to disuade anyone else from thinking vietnam is a place for such activity.

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Gary Glitter will spend at least four months in a Vietnam prison after police claimed that medical evidence has been found which corroborates claims that the former star had sex with young girls.

The public security ministry has ruled that enough evidence exists to hold the singer, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, while inquiries continue.

Nguyen Duc Trinh, deputy head of the investigative police in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, said: "We have enough evidence to charge him. There are several proofs of his crime.

"For example, the victim's confession, his landlord’s testimony and checks on his computer and medical checkup of the victims."

Glitter was arrested on Saturday at Ho Chi Minh City airport as he tried to leave for Thailand, following reports that he was living with a 15-year-old girl.

Mr Trinh said that investigators had since interviewed five girls alleged to have had sex with Glitter, 61, including a 12-year-old.

"Obscene acts with children is a specially serious crime," he told reporters in Vung Tau city.

In Vietnam, anyone having sex with children under 13 is deemed to have committed child rape, which can carry the death penalty. The penalty for raping children aged 13 to 16 years is seven to 15 years in jail. The legal age of consent is 16.

Le Thanh Kinh, a lawyer acting for Glitter, said that he would seek bail for his client.

"I am arranging another meeting with him soon," Mr Kinh said ."We are still pursuing the plan to bail him out."

Vietnamese officials have voiced nervousness about proceeding with the case against a British citizen, but a representative of the Vung Tau people’s committee told the AFP news agency: "If we don’t bring him to court, other countries will then not respect Vietnam in the field of fighting child sex abuse.

"We don’t want the world to look at Vietnam as a new sex tourist destination, like Cambodia and Thailand."

State newspapers have said that two girls, aged 12 and 13, had sex with Glitter several times and that he had paid them between 150,000 dong (around £5) and 300,000 dong each time. He has denied the allegations and told prosecutors that he was teaching the girls to speak English.

Paul Higham, the British High Consul in Ho Chi Minh City, met Glitter today in the Phuoc County detention centre outside Vung Tau. Glitter is being held with around 400 others, about 85 per cent of whom are awaiting trial or court appearances.

"The living condition in the centre is very poor," said Dang Van Son, an officer at the prison. "If he wants to eat something, he gives us the money and we bring in better quality food for him."

Glitter is reported to have told his lawyer that conditions were acceptable and he was allowed to keep 1.4 million dong (about £50) to buy extra food.

Conditions in Vietnamese jails are very different from Horfield Prison in Bristol, where he served two months in 1999 for possessing "sick and degrading" images of children. Vietnamese prisons are notorious for their squalor, harsh treatment of prisoners and lack of attention to sanitation, hygiene and food.

Even if he is not prosecuted in Vietnam, Glitter could face charges in this country if he ever returned under Britain’s "sex tourism" laws - the Sex Offences Act 1996.

A Home Office spokeswoman said that British police could ask for the file on any alleged sexual offence that is recognised in this country to be sent to them for consideration. "We would always prefer someone is prosecuted in the country where the offence is committed, but if not we have the power to look into it here," she said.

The Times (UK)

[sriracha john]

Update

The Associated Press

HANOI, Vietnam -- Police in southern Vietnam have completed investigation into former British rocker Gary Glitter's alleged obscene acts with a child, his attorney said Monday.

"It's likely that the findings of the investigation will be handed over to him this week," Glitter's Vietnamese attorney Le Thanh Kinh said in a telephone interview.

Glitter, 61, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, is being held at Phuoc Co prison outside the coastal Vung Tau city on suspicion of engaging obscene acts with a child, an offense punishable up to 12 years in prison.

He was seized while trying to board a flight to Bangkok from Ho Chi Minh City on Nov. 19.

Kinh said no additional charge was raised by the police investigators.

Police earlier said they were looking into a child rape charge, an offense punishable by death, after medical tests on the girls including an 11-year-old and 12-year-old showed evidence of intercourse.

The case will be passed to provincial prosecutors for review. It will take a month for prosecutors to decide whether to put Glitter on trial.

Kinh said in earlier interview that Glitter admitted to police that an 11-year-old girl slept in his bed, but denied sexually abusing her.

Glitter won fame as a flamboyant "glam rocker" in the 1970s. He is perhaps best known for the 1972 hit "Rock and Roll Part 2," still often played at sporting events.

He was convicted in Britain in 1999 of possessing child pornography and served half of a four-month jail term. He later went to Cambodia and was permanently expelled in 2002, but Cambodian officials did not specify any crime or file charges.

[sriracha john]

The sad and yet it seems, inevitable..... money pay-off...

Gary Glitter Paid to Ensure Cooperation

By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer

43 minutes ago

HANOI, Vietnam - Former rock star Gary Glitter paid $4,000 to ensure the cooperation in his legal case of the families of Vietnamese girls he is accused of sexually abusing.

Glitter, who won fame as a flamboyant glam rocker in the 1970s, gave $2,000 each to the families of two girls, ages 11 and 12, after they agreed to write letters to the court asking that the case be dropped, lawyer Le Thanh Kinh said Wednesday.

"If we pay the money for the two families, when this case goes to court, maybe Mr. Gary will receive a lighter penalty," Kinh said.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, has been held in prison since Nov. 19 on suspicion of engaging in obscene acts with a child, an offense punishable with up to 12 years in prison. He was seized while trying to board a flight to Bangkok, Thailand, from Ho Chi Minh City.

Police completed their investigation this week and handed over their conclusions to Glitter, 61, and Kinh on Wednesday, said Lt. Col. Nguyen Duc Trinh in a telephone interview. Prosecutors will get the documents within three days.

The families, who were paid two weeks ago, had asked for $10,000 and $5,000 respectively, Kinh said.

"After receiving the money, they informed the investigation bureau that they don't want to go to court and they want to drop the case," he said.

Prosecutors said the money paid would have no bearing on whether the case goes to trial. However, Nguyen Van Xung, deputy provincial chief prosecutor, said the court would consider the $4,000 paid as a form of compensation during the sentencing phase.

"It will not affect the investigation and the trial process, but the court may consider it as one factor to lessen the sentence," Xung said.

Glitter was convicted in Britain in 1999 of possessing child pornography and served half of a four-month jail term.

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Arrested former British rock star Gary Glitter ® is led away after a meeting with a British consulate's official in the southern coastal Vietnamese city of Vung Tau, November 2005. Glitter has paid a total of 4,000 dollars to the families of two Vietnamese girls with whom he is alleged to have performed obscene acts.

Edited December 28, 2005 by sriracha john

[britmaveric]

Trial Opens Gary Glitter in Vietnam

VUNG TAU, Vietnam (AP) - The trial of former British rocker Gary Glitter opened Thursday on charges that he molested two underaged Vietnamese girls at a seaside rental home in southern Vietnam.

The former glam rocker has been accused of kissing, fondling and committing other obscene acts with a 10-year-old and an 11-year-old at his residence in the southern port city of Vung Tau last year. He has denied the allegations.

Glitter, 61, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, wore black pants, shirt and cap as police escorted him through a scrum of reporters Thursday morning into the yellow concrete courthouse in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.

Glitter held up two fingers in a victory sign and said only one word: "Innocent."

The trial is closed to the public but the verdict will be read publicly on Friday. He faces three to seven years in prison if convicted.

The former rocker has said he was teaching the girls English at his home and considered them "like his grandchildren."

Glitter, who hit his musical peak in the 1970s, had hits with "Leader of the Gang" and "Do You Wanna Touch" but is perhaps best known for his crowd-pleasing rock anthem "Rock and Roll (Part 2)," which is still played at sporting events.

His fall from grace began with a conviction in Britain in 1999 for possessing child pornography. He served half of a four-month jail term. He later went to Cambodia and in 2002 was expelled from that country, but Cambodian officials did not specify any crime or file charges.

-AP NEWS

By TINI TRAN

Mar 1, 10:33 PM (ET)

[Nomad97]

From the BBC News:

" British former rock star Gary Glitter has been jailed for three years after a Vietnamese court found him guilty of sexually abusing two young girls. The jury found that Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, had molested the girls, aged 11 and 12, at his home in the resort town of Vung Tau, southern Vietnam. The 61-year-old, who claimed he was innocent, said the verdict was part of a "conspiracy" and was "unbelievable". Glitter will be deported from Vietnam after he has served his sentence. The two-day trial took place behind closed doors as it involved minors. In addition to the prison sentence, Glitter has been ordered to pay 5m Vietnamese Dong (£180/$315) to his victims' families. "

[sriracha john]

UPDATE

In the case that refuses to go away:

Gary Glitter appeals court sentence

(dpa) - Disgraced British glam rocker Gary Glitter has filed an appeal of his three-year prison sentence on child molestation charges in Vietnam, his lawyer said Thursday.

"Gary Glitter signed the letter of appeal yesterday morning," lawyer Le Thanh Kinh said by telephone. "The letter says that the evidence against Gary Glitter is not objective and he asks that the court reconsider his case.''

The appeal has been sent to the People's Court of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, which will forward it to the People's Supreme Court, the lawyer said. Normally, it takes a month for the appeal court to rule but Kinh said a decision might come down sooner in this case.

Known in the 1970s as for his colourful stage persona and such hits as "Leader of the Gang," Glitter, 61, was sentenced March 3 in the southern Vietnamese province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau after being convicted of sexually molesting two Vietnamese girls, both 11 at the time.

In recent years, he has been an international pariah hounded by the tabloid press and forced to leave Cuba and Cambodia after accusations of child sex. The Vietnamese court case was the first time he had been convicted of molesting a child.

Three years was the lightest possible sentence that Glitter could have received under Vietnamese law, which stipulates a maximum sentence of seven years. The judge said his sentence was lighter because the singer had already paid 2,000 dollars to the families of his victims.

If his appeal of the conviction is not accepted, he could be eligible for parole after serving one-third of the three-year sentence.

Edited March 16, 2006 by sriracha john

[marshbags]

Update on S.J,s " appeal lodged " 16-03-2006

This has just come to me via an email news update / latest news item 30-04-2006

Happy to pass it on while not entering the debate pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

30/4/2006 9:53:18 AM

( Source: Reuters)

Glitter's appeal in May - paper

HANOI (Reuters) - Disgraced "glam rocker" Gary Glitter's appeal against a three-year jail sentence for molesting children in Vietnam will be heard by a court next month, a Vietnamese newspaper reported on Sunday.

Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper quoted an official of the Ho Chi Minh City Supreme Court as saying that the appeal would be heard on May 19 in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam.

Glitter, 61, was sentenced on March 3 in the resort town of Vung Tau and was imprisoned there.

The report on the hearing date could not be immediately confirmed. Communist-run Vietnam is in the middle of a four-day holiday weekend marking the end of the war with the Americans on April 30, 1975, and the May Day workers' festival.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, reached the height of his fame in the 1970s with pop songs and flamboyant hairstyle.

At a one-day, closed trial in March, the now shaven-headed Glitter was jailed for three years for sexually abusing two 11-year-old girls in Vung Tau, which is about 125 km (80 miles) from Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon.

The judge said he would be deported from the Southeast Asian country after serving the sentence.

Glitter, already registered as a sex offender in Britain after a 1999 child pornography conviction, was arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport in November 2005 while trying to leave Vietnam.

If it,s repeated elsewhere i apologise, i couldn,t see it in any of the usual forums.

marshbags

Edited April 30, 2006 by marshbags