Gary Glitter gets 3 years
2006-03-03 07:34
Vung Tau - A Vietnamese court
jailed British "glam rocker" Gary Glitter to three years in
prison on Friday for molesting two young girls.
Judge Hoang Thanh Tung described in graphic detail the
offences by the 1970s pop icon in the southern resort town of
Vung Tau, drawing gasps from Vietnamese in the courtroom.
He said the 61-year-old Glitter, whose real name is Paul
Gadd, ejaculated on the belly of one of the underage girls and
had another urinate into his mouth.
"The court pronounces the defendant, Paul Francis Gadd,
also known as Gary Glitter, guilty of engaging in lewd acts
with children," the judge said.
Defence lawyer Le Thanh Kinh said Glitter would be eligible
for parole one year from when he was first detained, in
November 2005, as is customary in Vietnam.
Glitter had 15 days to appeal but had not yet decided
whether to do so.
"That comes from him, not from me," Kinh told reporters.
The black-shirted Glitter, who was told by the judge to
remove his red bandana, stared ahead impassively as the
sentence was read out in a courtroom packed with foreign
journalists.
Newspapers blamed for troubles
But afterwards he lashed out at an unnamed British
newspaper he blamed for his troubles.
"It's a conspiracy. You know who. One of Great Britain's
newspapers," he told Reuters as he was escorted into a prison
van by 10 green-uniformed policemen.
He has already spent more than three months of pre-trial
detention in a two-man cell at a windswept concrete prison,
surrounded by AK-47-toting guards, mould-encrusted walls and
coils of rusting razor wire.
However, British consular officials given access to Glitter
said he remained in good health. They also had no complaints
about his handling in communist Vietnam since his arrest in
November while trying to leave the country.
"He is treated well under Vietnamese law and that's all we
can ask for. We are in Vietnam, not in the UK," said Paul
Higham, the British vice-consul in Ho Chi Minh City.
"As far as I know, he is well."
- Reuters