Glitter Faces Child Obscenity Charges

The disgraced British rock star, Gary Glitter, was today charged by Vietnamese authorities with committing obscene acts with children.

Glitter is accused of abusing two girls aged 10 and 11 and could receive a seven-year jail sentence if convicted. Prosecutors also confirmed today that Glitter, 61, whose real name is Paul Gadd, will not be charged with the more serious offence of raping children, which carries the death penalty.

The former glam rock star was arrested as he tried to flee Vietnam in November amid allegations over relationships with two girls. The girls reportedly told police they had sex with Glitter at his seaside home in Vung Tau.

However, police investigators said there was not enough evidence to press a child rape charge - which has a maximum penalty of death by firing squad. Medical tests have shown the girls did not have sexual intercourse.

It emerged last month that Glitter paid £1,100 each to the families of the girls, equivalent to around three times the average annual wage in Vietnam. Both families wrote letters to the court asking for the case against the star to be dropped and Glitter’s lawyer hoped it would mean a lighter sentence.

Glitter left his rented home in the southern resort of Vung Tau after he was tracked down there by a Sunday newspaper. He was held by authorities at Tan Son Nhat international airport in Ho Chi Minh City as he tried to leave the country.

The former star was then taken back to Vung Tau for questioning and held in a regional prison.

Glitter is accused of kissing and fondling the girls and engaging in other physical acts, said Nguyen Van Xung, the deputy chief prosecutor in southern Ba Ria Vung Tau province.

Prosecutors would hand their case to Ba Ria Vung Tau provincial people’s court early next week, which would decide within two and a half months whether to put Glitter on trial, he said.

Glitter’s Vietnamese lawyer, Le Thanh Kinh, has said he would request that authorities release Glitter on $40,000 (£22,800) bail, but judges are unlikely to grant such a request, the prosecutor said.

"We haven’t been officially requested a bail, but if there is one, it’s unlikely that he would be released on bail because there is a risk that he would flee the country," he said.

Police had said earlier they were looking into child rape charges because medical checks showed evidence that one of the girls had sexual intercourse. However, the girl told police that she previously had sexual intercourse with a boyfriend, not Glitter, the prosecutor said.

Glitter won fame as a flamboyant glam rock star in the 1970s. But his image was tarnished when he was convicted in Britain in 1999 of possessing child pornography. He served half of a four-month jail sentence and later went to Cambodia, which permanently expelled him in 2002.