Vietnam: An appeals court in Vietnam yesterday upheld the conviction and three-year prison sentence of former British rocker Gary Glitter for molesting young girls at a seaside villa.
The court "rejects the appeal of the accused and sentences him to three years in prison for obscene acts with children", said Truong Vinh Thuy, one of three judges hearing Glitter's appeal in Ho Chi Minh City.
The 62-year-old singer - famed in the 1970s as an outrageous act decked out in bouffant wigs and sequin jumpsuits - had been found guilty by a court on March 3rd for committing obscene acts with girls aged 10 and 11.
Standing before the judge today at the People's Supreme Court of Appeals, Glitter clasped his hands behind him and shook his head several times as he listened to a court translator during the 40-minute verdict.
"There was no defence allowed!" he screamed to reporters as he left the courthouse. "I didn't do anything!" he said and yelled an obscenity at journalists before he was put in a police truck and driven away.
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was accused of kissing, fondling and "engaging in other physical acts" with the girls at his rented villa in the seaside city of Vung Tau, about 80 miles southeast of Ho Chi Minh City.
He has maintained his innocence, saying he was teaching the girls English at his home and considered them "like his grandchildren".
He has admitted to police that the 11-year-old girl slept in his room because she was afraid of ghosts, but denied committing any lewd acts, said his lawyer Le Thanh Kinh. Glitter said he was a victim of a conspiracy by the media, witnesses and the victims, Mr Kinh said. He accused tabloids newspapers, including the Sun and the News of the World, of "damaging his reputation", Mr Kinh said.
In 1997, Glitter took his computer to be repaired, and thousands of hardcore pornographic images of children were found on it. He was convicted in Britain in 1999 of possessing child pornography, and served half of a four-month jail term.
He later went to Cambodia and in 2002 was expelled from that country. - (AP)