Lock up your underage daughters.
Glitter tour continues; paedophile back in Bangkok
Disgraced British paedophile Gary Glitter was stuck in transit again
on Thursday at Suvarnabhumi Airport where immigration authorities
were in a legal limbo about what to do with the former glam-rock
star .
Glitter, who earlier this week completed a two years and nine months
prison term in Vietnam for molesting two preteen girls, has been
barred from entering Thailand and Hong Kong after refusing to return
to the UK.
The unwanted former rock star has been living in airport transit
lounges since departing Vietnam Tuesday and refusing to board a plane
for London Wednesday morning.
He poses a legal problem for immigration authorities who are not
empowered to deport him.
"We can't force him to return to his home country because he has done
nothing wrong in our country," said Pol Lt Gen Chatchawal Suksomjit,
Thai immigration commissioner.
Under international law, if a passenger is refused entry at his
chosen destination, he must be returned to his original port of
embarkation, said Chatchawal.
"He started in Vietnam so we must return him there and let the
Vietnamese deal with it," Chatchawal said.
Thai authorities expressed a desire to send Glitter to the UK, but he
has refused to go.
Thai Airways International (THAI), the carrier that has been
escorting Glitter around Asia, is also powerless to persuade him to
return to Britain.
"We can only arrange his ticket. We can't force him to get on a
plane," said a THAI official, who asked to remain anonymous.
Glitter returned to Thailand from Hong Kong on Thai Airways
International flight TG 613 that arrived 1 pm Thursday.
Thai immigration authorities, who barred the Briton from entering the
country on Wednesday as an "undesirable," were persuaded to allow
Glitter to fly to Hong Kong Wednesday night, where he was likewise
denied entry.
Hong Kong was a destination he had talked about going to in an
interview with Vietnamese media while he was still in prison.
Glitter, 64, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was arrested at the Ho Chi
Minh City airport in November 2005 as he tried to catch a flight to
Bangkok after being accused of sexually assaulting two girls, aged 11
and 12, in Vietnam.
He received a three-year sentence, which was reduced by three months
during a Vietnamese New Year amnesty.
During his time in prison, Glitter was diagnosed with a heart
problem, and he was expected to seek medical treatment in Britain,
where he was expected to be met by police to be entered into the
national registry of sex offenders.
Glitter's first arrest on charges related to child sex laws was in
Britain in 1997 when thousands of images of child pornography were
found on his computer after he took it to be repaired.
He was sentenced to four months in prison and served two before
resettling in South-East Asia.
The British press tracked him down in Cambodia and Vietnam and wrote
articles accusing him of abusing local children, which led to his
arrest and conviction.
Glitter became famous for his flamboyant costumes and behaviour
during the glam-rock period and was known for hits like I'm the
Leader of the Gang, Do You Wanna Touch Me, Hello! Hello! I'm Back
Again, and I Love You Love Me Love. (dpa)
Dale
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