Gary Glitter to be freed

2008-08-01 22:11

Hanoi, Vietnam - British pop singer Gary Glitter will be freed from a Vietnam prison on August 19 after serving a three-year term for child molestation, an official said on Friday.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was arrested in Vietnam on November 19 2005 for charges of committing obscene acts with two girls aged 11 and 12 in the southern Vietnamese resort town of Vung Tau.

"According to Vietnamese law, Glitter will be freed on August 19," said Chu Xuan Mau, an official from the department in charge of prisoners' file in the Binh Thuan province, where he is being held.

"The decision on his release will be read before him that day. It will be signed by the director of the prison," he told AFP.

Jailed in Britain for child pornography

Glitter was sentenced to three years in jail in March 2006, but he got a three-month reduction in 2007 when Vietnam marked its traditional Tet lunar new year.

"We have sent his file to the provincial external relations office and relevant police offices" in preparations for the release, Mau said.

In June, the online edition of People's Police newspaper quoted Glitter as saying he would continue with his unfinished album when freed, and might consider settling down in Hong Kong or Singapore.

Glitter, the former "glam rocker" once famed for his flamboyant bouffant wigs and silver jumpsuits, was also jailed in 1999 by a British court for possession of child pornography.

He served half of a four-month term and then left Britain to live in several other countries, including Cambodia, before moving to Vietnam.

Glitter's hits in the 1970s included, I'm The Leader Of The Gang (I Am!) and Do You Wanna Touch Me?

- AFP