| |
HONG KONG: Former glam rocker and convicted paedophile Gary Glitter was refused entry to Hong Kong on Wednesday after being thrown out of Thailand, the British foreign ministry said.
Chinese authorities told London that they denied the 64-year-old entry at 11:00 pm local time (1500 GMT). He was earlier declared "persona non grata" by the Thai authorities and it was not immediately clear where he was headed next.
Glitter arrived in Bangkok late Tuesday after being deported from Vietnam, where he had just finished serving nearly three years in prison for committing obscene acts with two girls aged 11 and 12.
He was then denied entry to Thailand because of his conviction, and Thai authorities had initially said he would be deported to London.
Thailand deported Glitter, real name Paul Francis Gadd, to Hong Kong after he refused to board a plane to his native Britain, a Thai immigration official said.
The Briton had been booked to fly to London, but refused to get on the plane, complaining of chest pains, Thai immigration officials said.
A doctor pronounced him fit to fly, saying he was suffering only a minor inflammation in his chest, a medical official at the airport told AFP.
When he refused to board the plane to Britain, Thai authorities agreed for him to go to Hong Kong, the spokesman said.
On the flight to Thailand, Glitter continued to profess his innocence and claimed to be happy to return home, according to British media.
"England is my home. It's where my heart is and family are. I can't wait to see them. God bless them all," he was quoted as saying in The Sun.
"God, am I happy to be leaving Vietnam and that jail. I should never have been in there. It's been a nightmare. Every second. I was set up, that's all I will say."
But on arrival in Bangkok, Glitter flatly refused to board a flight to London.
"I'm not going back to London. You can't make me. I've done my time. I'm a free man," he was quoted as saying in The Times.
However, immigration authorities said Glitter had broken the law by
spending more than 12 hours in transit without a visa or an onward flight,
giving them the right to deport him.
Britain has not announced any outstanding charges against the singer once famed for his flamboyant bouffant wigs and silver jumpsuits, but British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said he should not be allowed to leave once he returns.
Glitter had several hits in the 1970s including "I'm The Leader Of The Gang (I Am!)" and "Do You Wanna Touch Me?" The anthemic 1972 hit "Rock and Roll" is still often chanted in British and US sports stadiums.
He was arrested in Britain in 1997 after he took his computer to a repair shop, where hardcore child pornographic material was found on its hard drive.
He was sentenced in 1999 to four months in prison, of which he served two.
Keen to avoid the media, Glitter reportedly moved to Cuba and then Cambodia, where he was expelled in 2002, allegedly for trawling for underage sex.
Having settled in communist Vietnam, where a British newspaper reported he was living with an underage girl, he was arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport in November 2005 while trying to leave for Thailand.
In March 2006, he was sentenced to three years in prison, the minimum term under Vietnamese law, which was later cut by three months.
The singer maintained his innocence, blamed a media conspiracy and claimed he was teaching the girls English and allowed them to stay overnight because they were scared of ghosts.
- AFP/so
|
