Gary Glitter continues fall from grace

Glitter was convicted in 1999 of possessing thousands of images of child pornography and served half of a four-month sentence before he left England.

In December 2002, he was expelled from Cambodia, hounded out by child advocates and then-Minister for Women’s Affairs Mu Sochua, who argued that his conviction in Britain was enough to bar him permanently.

“With these types of convictions and charges, we were deeply concerned that Cambodian children would be put at risk around this man,” said Naly Pilorge, director of LICADHO, a Cambodian organization that works on human rights and child trafficking issues. “Obviously, Vietnam has the same concerns.”

Glitter has shown up in Vietnam three times since Oct. 2003, according to police, most recently in April.

He rented a terra cotta tiled villa, with a swimming pool and an ocean view, in Vung Tau, a sleepy seaside resort popular with Vietnamese as a weekend getaway from Ho Chi Minh City.

Few foreigners reside here, so Glitter, bald and burly, was quickly noticed. Neighbors said he was often seen bringing up to five or six girls in their mid-teens to his home. Laughter and loud talking at the pool could be heard over the high walls surrounding his villa, they said.

Vietnam does not have the reputation of Cambodia as a haven for sex tourism, but recent surveys by the government and the U.N. Children’s Fund indicate that child prostitution, including child sex tourism, is on the rise, said Le Hong Loan, head of UNICEF Vietnam’s child protection section.

“I think the case of Gary Glitter is a historic case for Vietnam so it can be more vigilant about the situation of sex tourism,” Loan said. “Many people are unaware of the problem but because of (Glitter) and the media, more and more people are talking about it.”

For the ex-rocker who sought to stay anonymous in Southeast Asia, notoriety proved his undoing.

“I hate the name Gary Glitter,” he reportedly said after being caught at Tan Son Nhat airport by an immigration officer who had remembered articles about the former singer. “It is too famous. Because of it, I draw so much attention.”

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