VIETNAM: A Vietnamese court yesterday imprisoned the former British rock star Gary Glitter for three years for sexually abusing two girls aged 10 and 11 in acts the judge described as "sick" and "abnormal".
The court in the southern resort town of Vung Tau also ordered Glitter (61), whose real name is Paul Gadd, to pay each victim five million dong (€261) and court costs. It ordered the destruction of his laptop's hard drive, on which police had found 2,231 pornographic images of children and 31 paedophile films.
Under Vietnamese law, Gadd, who served two months in jail in Britain in 1999 for paedophile offences, has 15 days to appeal. He is eligible for parole after a third of his sentence, which was backdated to his arrest on November 19th.
Gadd, wearing the same black outfit as at his day-long trial on Thursday, listened to the 35-minute verdict without understanding more than a few words. When the sentence had been translated for him, he said: "I'm innocent. I'm very disappointed in this judgment," as he was marched out of the court by eight police officers. Gadd claimed the trial had been a "conspiracy by you know who, one or two of the newspapers". His relationships with Vietnamese children in Vung Tau were exposed initially by the British tabloids.
Judge Hoang Thanh Tung explained Gadd's crimes in graphic detail to a court packed with scores of journalists and about 150 locals. As the trial had been held in private to protect the children's identities, none of the facts had been made public.
He described how in June 2005 Glitter twice molested "D", then aged 10, in his seafront villa. Gadd paid D less than the equivalent of €5.80 on each occasion. Three months later, the judge said, Gadd met "Ng" - who had run away from home - through a prostitute, Hoang Thi Bong (18). In the indictment, prosecutors said Ng alleged Glitter raped her twice.