Glitter Gets Three Years

Gary Glitter blamed “one of Great Britain’s newspapers” as he began his three-year sentence for sexually abusing young girls.

Still protesting his innocence, he told reporters that the paper – presumably the News Of The World – has created “a conspiracy” against him.

Vietnamese police began investigating Glitter last November, after NOTW tracked him down to a beach house in Vung Tau resort and took several pictures of him with girls reported to be aged 11 and 12.

The March 3rd verdict came after Judge Hoang Thanh Tung described in graphic detail the offences committed by the 1970s pop icon, reportedly drawing gasps from a courtroom packed with dozens of foreign journalists. Most of them were said to be from British tabloid papers.

Chief investigator Colonel Nguyen Duc Trinh said he had recovered 2,231 images of child pornography and 31 video clips from Glitter’s computer.

He said the files were “mainly children making love to each other, or naked children.” “Biologically, Glitter is not a normal person. A normal person would never store such photos,” he told the court.

“He sexually abused and committed obscene acts with children many times in a disgusting and sick manner,” said Judge Hoang Thanh Tung, summing up.

Glitter, 61, was sentenced under his real name of Paul Francis Gadd.

The following day, The Sun – the NOTW ‘s sister paper – described Glitter’s court outburst as “a sickening show of bravado.” It ran a picture of him flashing a “V for Victory” sign with his fingers alongside a headline that read: “V For Vile.”

It doesn’t look safe for Glitter to return to the U.K., where (technically) he could also face charges under the section of the 2003 Sex Offences Act that refers to “sex tourism abroad.”

With the four months he spent in custody following his arrest at Ho Chi Minh City airport to come off his sentence, and allowing him to be eligible for parole after serving a third of it, he could be deported as early as Christmas.

Glitter was convicted of pedophile offences in Britain in 1999 and served two months in jail after admitting to 54 charges related to possessing 4,000 child pornography images on his computer. He was also put on the sexual offenders list.