Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - 17:00
AFP News Briefs ListThailand deports Glitter to Hong Kong: immigration
Thailand deported former glam rocker and convicted paedophile Gary Glitter on Wednesday, sending him to Hong Kong after he refused to board a plane to his native Britain, a Thai immigration official said.
"He left Thailand for Hong Kong this evening," Colonel Voravat Amornvivat, a spokesman for the immigration service, told AFP.
Glitter arrived in Bangkok late Tuesday after being deporting from Vietnam, where he just finished serving nearly three years in prison for child sex offences.
The 64-year-old Briton had been booked to fly to London, but refused to get on the plane, Thai immigration officials said.
Glitter was then denied entry to Thailand because of his conviction, and Thai authorities had initially said he would be deported to London.
When he refused to board the plane to Britain, Thai authorities agreed for him to go to Hong Kong, the spokesman said.
Glitter -- real name Paul Francis Gadd -- spent two years and nine months in a Vietnamese prison after being convicted of committing obscene acts with the two girls in the southern resort town of Vung Tau in 2005.
He has always maintained his innocence.
Images
Former glam rocker Gary Glitter sits on a flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok after his release form his Vietnamese prison on August 19. Thailand has deported Glitter, sending him to Hong Kong after he refused to board a plane to his native Britain, a Thai immigration official said.
© 2007 AFP Aude Genet
