Glitter set for release from Vietnamese jail

Published on Saturday 2 August 2008 19:51

THE disgraced musician Gary Glitter, currently in a Vietnamese prison after being convicted of molesting two young girls, will be released this month.

An official at the Thu Duc prison in Binh Thuan province, where he is serving a three-year sentence, said he would be freed on August 19.

The 63-year-old, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was arrested in November 2005 at Ho Chi Minh airport as he tried to leave the country. He was convicted in March 2006 of committing obscene acts with two girls aged 10 and 11.

Chu Xuan Mau, a prison official, said: "According to Vietnamese law, Glitter will be freed on August 19. The decision on his release will be read before him that day. It will be signed by the director of the prison."

It is common practice in Vietnam to reduce the sentences of inmates with good prison records just before Tet, the Lunar New Year festival, and Gadd's term was cut by three months in February 2007.

On top of the prison term, Gadd was ordered to pay five million Vietnamese dong (180) to the girls' families after his conviction. In Britain he served half of a four-month sentence in 1999 for possessing child pornography.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said it was aware Gadd's release was imminent. The singer would be given normal consular assistance after he was freed, the spokesman said.

His plans after release are unclear, but in June a Vietnamese police newspaper website quoted him as saying he wanted to continue working on his unfinished album and might consider settling in Hong Kong or Singapore. There have also been reports he may move to the United States, though with two convictions for child sex offences, his chances of obtaining a visa look slim.

Gadd is on the UK sex offenders' register for his conviction in 1999. Even if this were not the case, the conviction in Vietnam would mean he would be required to sign the register if he returned to the UK.

A spokesman for the Home Office said: "Where it is known that a sex offender convicted in another country is to be deported to the UK, he is met at the port of entry by the police, who interview him and pass any relevant information to the police in the area to which the offender is proposing to live.

"Offenders convicted of sexual offences, whether in the UK or overseas, may be monitored."