Gary Glitter convicted of obscene acts in Vietnam
The veteran paedophile has been caught, again, and this time he got a small part of what he truly deserves!
Yes, Gary, we know ... it is a conspiracy, just like all the other times.
CBC.CA
-CBC Arts
A court in Vietnam has convicted former British rocker Gary Glitter of obscene acts with two young girls and sentenced him to three years in prison.
The ruling comes after a two-day trial in the southern coastal resort region of Vung Tau, where Glitter had rented a villa last year.
"The court pronounces the defendant, Paul Francis Gadd, also known as Gary Glitter, guilty of engaging in lewd acts with children," Judge Hoang Thanh Tung said.
While the 61-year-old former glam-rocker said nothing while the verdict was read, Glitter later lashed out, denying the charges.
"I haven't done anything. I'm innocent. It's a conspiracy," he shouted.
Glitter had denied the allegations during the trial, saying he had been helping the girls with their English. They were 10 and 11 years old at the time.
The court allowed reporters and the public into the courthouse to hear the verdict Friday after the closed trial.
Though he faced a sentence of up to seven years in prison, the court gave him the minimum sentence of three years in part because Glitter had paid $2,000 US to each girl's family in December and the money was considered a form of "compensation."
Friday's ruling also required Glitter to pay additional compensation of about $320 US to each girl's family as well as court fees. He has 15 days to appeal the sentence.
According to defence attorney Le Thanh Kinh, Glitter will be eligible for parole in about a year, after he has served one-third of his sentence.
Glitter has been held in a Vietnamese prison since Nov. 19, 2005, when he was arrested after trying to leave the country.
He rose to fame as a glam rocker in the 1970s with songs such as Do You Wanna Touch Me and Rock and Roll (Part 2), which has become a standard at sporting events.
In 1999, he was sentenced to four months in jail in Britain after being found guilty of storing more than 4,000 images of child pornography on his computer. Glitter then travelled to Cambodia, where child rights activists hounded him.
The Cambodian government expelled him in 2002 arguing that he was "a threat to the security of the country and to the national image of Cambodia."
Glitter filed lawsuits last year fighting the deportation orders.
(I hope a rat slowly gnaws on his testicles!)
