Glitter told not to leave town without telling police

Former British pop star and convicted sex offender Gary Glitter has been ordered by Cambodian police not to leave the capital without telling them, a senior officer said today.

Glitter, 57, was questioned last week after police were tipped off about his 1999 conviction for downloading illegal pornographic images of children.

He has been living in Phnom Penh for about six months, police said.

Police who had seized his passport returned it to him yesterday when he turned up at the police station in sunglasses and a motorcycle helmet, his face wrapped in a scarf.

Lieutenant Colonel Pol Pithey, chief of the Municipal Police’s Foreigners Department, said he told Glitter to inform his office if he intends to travel outside the city ‘‘because his status is still under our consideration’’.

He said Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, has signed an undertaking to inform police about any trip he might take outside the capital.

Glitter had not been asked to leave the country as he had not committed any crime, Pol Pithey said.

The publicity over the case has sparked a debate over whether he should be deported.

Cambodia has an unsavoury reputation for sex tourism. Some poor families sell daughters or nieces into the sex trade.

Minister of Women’s Affairs Mu Sochua said on Wednesday that she wants Glitter deported as soon as possible.

Glitter gained fame in the 1970s with such hits as I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am) and Rock And Roll (Part 2).