Glitter to be held for three months

A Vietnamese prosecutor said today that Gary Glitter will be detained for three months under suspicion of committing obscene acts with a child.

Nguyen Van Xung, deputy prosecutor for Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, said police have gathered enough evidence that Glitter committed the crime and prosecutors have approved initiating criminal proceedings against him.

“Police have enough evidence to keep him for three months,” Xung said.

A formal order approved by his office to keep Glitter in custody at a prison outside Vung Tau while they continue their criminal investigation will be issued later today, he said.

Glitter, 61, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, has been held in detention since last Saturday when he was stopped at Ho Chi Minh City’s international airport as he was trying to leave the country amid allegations he had committed lewd acts with minors at his rented home in Vung Tau.

In Vietnam, the crime of committing obscene acts with a minor carries a maximum prison term of 12 years.

Police said initial investigations turned up evidence that Glitter had sex with underage girls. The age of consent in Vietnam is 18.

Authorities have obtained statements from five girls about their sexual involvement with Glitter, including the 12-year-old, and compiled medical evidence of potential abuse, said Lt. Col. Nguyen Duc Trinh, deputy head of the police investigation department in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.

Glitter, who has denied all allegations, has not been charged with any crime. His attorney Le Thanh Kinh said he is still working on getting his client released on bail.

The singer has been living in the coastal resort of Vung Tau since April, police said.

He has entered the country three times since 2003, according to immigration records.

Glitter, who rose to fame as a glam rocker in the 1970s, is perhaps best known for Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah) and Rock and Roll (Part 2), which is still frequently played at sporting events.

He was convicted in Britain in 1999 of possessing child pornography and served half of a four-month jail sentence before being released.

He later went to Cambodia and was permanently expelled in 2002, though Cambodian officials did not specify any crime or file charges.