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Gary Glitter back in Thailand after Hong Kong refuses entry

Disgraced rocker Gary Glitter arrived back in Bangkok yesterday after Hong Kong denied him entry, continuing a two-day odyssey that began when he was released from a Vietnamese prison after serving time for molesting children.

Glitter, a British citizen, flew to Hong Kong on Wednesday night after Thai authorities barred him from entering the country. Hong Kong immigration officials then refused him entry after interviewing him, a British Foreign Office spokesman said.

Police Colonel Worawat Amornwiwat said Glitter arrived back in Bangkok yesterday and would again be denied entry. He said Glitter’s airline, Thai Airways, should ensure he continues on his originally planned journey to England.

“Thailand is not allowing him to enter the country and Hong Kong is turning him back so there is no choice for him now,” Worawat said. “It is the responsibility of Thai Airways to take him out of the country.”

On Tuesday night, Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was taken from his prison cell to a Thai Airways flight out of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. He had been booked to change planes in Bangkok en route to London, but refused to board the flight to Britain, complaining of an earache.

Lieutenant General Chatchawal Suksomchit, chief of Thailand’s immigration police, said Glitter was denied entry because under Thai immigration laws those convicted of child sex abuse in a foreign country can be barred.

Glitter, 64, was convicted in March 2006 of committing “obscene acts with children.”

He served two years and nine months of a three-year sentence, which was reduced for good behavior.

Meanwhile Britain announced new measures to crack down on child sex offenders on Wednesday, as Glitter’s release from jail reignited a fierce debate about pedophiles.

In an announcement timed just hours before Glitter was originally due back in London, British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled a raft of new measures to tighten restrictions on child sex offenders and their movements.

“The UK has a rigorous system in place for managing child sex offenders which is among the toughest in the world. The changes I’m announcing today will strengthen that even further,” she said.

These could include taking away pedophiles’ passports and extending travel bans.

Branding Glitter “despicable,” Smith said she found it “pretty hard to imagine” that he would be allowed to travel abroad again.

Doctor Michele Elliott, of the children’s charity Kidscape, told the Daily Mail newspaper: “It makes you sick ... He should go and live on a desert island. Nobody wants him.”

And Lorraine Williams, landlady of the Swan Inn in Glitter’s old village, told reporters: “He won’t be getting a pint in here. We have children coming in with their parents. You can’t be too careful.”
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