BRITAIN: Gary Glitter, the British singer who spent three years in a Vietnamese jail for child sex abuse, returned to London yesterday after failing to find sanctuary in Asia.
Glitter, famous in the 1970s and 1980s for songs such as Hello, Hello, Im Back Again and I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am), arrived at Heathrow airport after an overnight flight from Bangkok.
He was met by police and escorted away under the flashing bulbs of a pack of photographers.
At a court hearing outside London hours after his arrival his lawyer failed in a bid to prevent him having to sign the sex offenders' register, a list of convicted paedophiles kept by the police. His lawyer David Corker said the ruling could be appealed.
"He tells me that his trial in Vietnam - a country which has been condemned by virtually every organisation concerned with justice and human rights as being a system of unfair justice and political trials - was a charade, was a travesty of justice," Mr Corker told reporters. "He never got a fair trial and in due course that will be expanded upon."
Glitter (64), was released from jail in Vietnam on Tuesday after serving almost all his three-year sentence. He was then flown to Bangkok for a connecting flight to London, but failed to board the flight saying he had ear and heart problems.
He wandered around Bangkok airport for nearly 24 hours despite being declared persona non grata in Thailand. He then flew to Hong Kong but was rejected by the Chinese authorities. After returning to Bangkok, he was put on the flight to London.
British media have speculated that the singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, tried to avoid returning for fear of a negative reception. Since his release, Glitter's every move has been tracked by British tabloid photographers.
Snapshots have shown a pale, drawn figure sporting a long white goatee beard, his face partially obscured by a baseball cap and a chequered scarf.
- (Reuters)