Gary Glitter charged with child molestation

Vietnamese prosecutors haven’t decided whether to try former glam rocker

Tuoi Tre / AP file

British rocker Gary Glitter, right, is led by an unidentified man at the Phuoc To prison in Vung Tau, Vietnam, in this Nov. 20, 2005 file photo. Glitter is charged with kissing and fondling two Vietnamese girls, ages 10 and 11.

updated 11:06 p.m. ET Jan. 5, 2006

HANOI, Vietnam - Former British rocker Gary Glitter was formally charged Friday with committing obscene acts with two girls aged 10 and 11 at a Vietnamese resort town, prosecutors said.

Glitter, 61, who won fame as a flamboyant glam rocker in the 1970s, is accused of kissing and engaging in other physical acts with the girls at his rental home in the southern coastal town of Vung Tau, prosecutor Nguyen Van Xung said.

The charges carry prison terms of three to seven years, said Xung, who is deputy chief prosecutor in southern Ba Ria Vung Tau province.

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Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, originally faced possible child rape charges carrying the death penalty, but prosecutors did not find enough evidence for those charges, Xung said.

He has been detained at a jail near Vung Tau since Nov. 19 after he was seized in Ho Chi Minh City trying to board a flight out of the country.

Ba Ria Vung Tau provincial People’s Court must still make the determination whether to put Glitter on trial, Xung said.

Prosecutors said it was unlikely Glitter would be granted bail, saying the court would consider him a flight risk.

Glitter is perhaps best known for his song “Rock and Roll (Part 2),” still often played at sporting events.

He was convicted in Britain in 1999 of possessing child pornography and served half of a four-month jail term. He later went to Cambodia and was permanently expelled in 2002, but Cambodian officials did not specify any crime or file charges.