Gary Glitter to be freed from prison

GLAM rocker Gary Glitter will be freed from a Vietnam prison on August 19 after serving a three-year term for child molestation, officials confirmed yesterday.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was arrested in Vietnam on November 19, 2005 for charges of committing obscene acts with two girls, aged 11 and 12, in the southern Vietnamese resort town of Vung Tau.

Chu Xuan Mau, an official in charge of prisoners’ files at Z30D Thu Duc jail in Binh Thuan province, where he is being held, said: “According to Vietnamese law, Glitter will be freed on August 19.

“The decision on his release will be read before him that day. It will be signed by the director of the prison,” he said.

Glitter was sentenced to three years jail in March 2006, but he got a three-month reduction in 2007 when Vietnam marked its traditional Tet lunar new year.

“We have sent his file to the provincial external relations office and relevant police offices in preparations for the release,” Mau said.

In June, the online edition of the People’s Police newspaper quoted Glitter as saying he would continue with his unfinished album when freed, and might consider settling down in Hong Kong or Singapore.

Glitter was also jailed in 1999 by a British court for possession of child pornography.

He served half of a four-month term and then left Britain to live in several other countries, including Cambodia, before moving to Vietnam.

Glitter’s hits in the 1970s included I’m The Leader Of The Gang (I Am!) and Do You Wanna Touch Me?