...

Paedophile pop star Gary Glitter may seek new life in Hong Kong

Society Materials 27 January 2008 08:07 (UTC +04:00)
Paedophile pop star Gary Glitter may seek new life in  Hong Kong

( dpa ) - Jailed former pop star Gary Glitter is considering a new life in Hong Kong after his release from prison in Vietnam, a news report said Sunday.

The 63-year-old, jailed for three years in 2005 for abusing girls aged 11 and 12, is due for release in August but may be released early after suffering a suspected heart attack in jail.

He is determined not to return to his native Britain and has asked his lawyer Le Thanh Kinh about the possibility of settling in Hong Kong, the city's Sunday Morning Post newspaper reported.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, has world-class public hospitals and no sex offenders' register, making it attractive to a paedophile with a weak heart, the newspaper pointed out.

A friend of Kinh told the newspaper that Glitter said of Hong Kong: "It's a big city where I can go around without being noticed. But I'll be able to get English food there."

Glitter - real name Paul Francis Gadd - became determined never to settle back in Britain after a meeting in his prison in Thu Duc, Vietnam, with visiting British police officers.

He was told about the need to sign a register of sex offenders if he returned. "It wasn't a happy encounter," the friend said. "It made him determined never to settle back in the UK."

Priscilla Lui, head of Hong Kong-based children's welfare group Against Child Abuse, said Glitter's case highlighted the need for a register of sex offenders in the city of 6.9 million.

Immigration officials said Glitter might not be allowed to settle in Hong Kong under certain entry schemes because of his criminal convictions.

Glitter was last week being treated in a hospital in the coastal town of Phan Thiet and is expected to be returned to Thu Duc prison shortly after recovering from his heart scare.

However, he may be released early from his three-year term, either under a Lunar New Year amnesty next month or as an early release on humanitarian grounds because of his sickness.

Glitter, who had a string of hits in the 1970s, lived in Vietnam for more than a year before being arrested for molesting young girls in his seaside villa in Vung Tau.

Previously, he lived in Cambodia and Cuba after fleeing Britain following a conviction for downloading child pornography onto his computer.

Latest

Latest