The BBC described Glitter's fall from grace as "dramatic" and "spectacular". The late 1990s and onward saw his image become irreparably tarnished, following his 1997 arrest and 1999 conviction in the United Kingdom for downloading thousands of items of child pornography. He was also charged at the same time, but acquitted, of sexual activity with an underage girl in the 1970s. Later, Glitter faced criminal charges and deportation from several countries in connection with actual and suspected child sexual abuse. He was deported from Cambodia on suspected child sexual abuse charges in 2002. After settling in Vietnam, a Vietnamese court found him guilty of obscene acts with minors in 2006. After serving his sentence, Glitter was deported to Britain, where he was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for life. In October 2012, Glitter was arrested again as part of Operation Yewtree. He was bailed but was eventually charged, in June 2014, with historical child sex offences. On 5 February 2015, he was found guilty of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault, and one of having sex with a girl under the age of 13 between 1975 and 1980. On 27 February 2015, he was sentenced to a total of 16 years in prison.
Formerly one of the best-loved entertainers in British music history, in 2015 Glitter was described by Alexis Petridis of The Guardian as a "public hate figure".
And a little more in-depth ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Glitter
Sex offences
In November 1997, Glitter was arrested after a technician discovered pornographic images of children on the hard drive of a laptop that he had taken to a computer retailer in Bristol for repair. Further images were discovered by police in searches of his homes in London and Somerset.[51] He was castigated in the media over the allegations. Additionally, his appearance in the Spice Girls' musical comedy film Spice World was cut, though a truncated edit of the scene, featuring a version of Glitter's "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)", was left in the film.
At the Bristol Crown Court on 12 November 1999, Mr Justice Butterfield sentenced Glitter to four months in prison and placed him on the sex offender register in the UK after he admitted downloading more than 4,000 items of child pornography.[10] He was cleared of a charge of having sex with a 14 year old girl, Alison Brown, in the late 1970s. Brown had had a relationship with Glitter for some years.[18] It was later revealed that Brown had sold her story to the News of the World and stood to earn more money from the newspaper should Glitter be convicted.[52]
Following rejection by the British public and facing scrutiny from the press following his arrest and conviction, Glitter fled on his yacht Voyageur to Spain.[53] He lived in Sotogrande for six months, in his yacht which was moored at the marina. He told the locals his name was Larry Brilliante, and spent his time frequenting local bars and surfing the Internet. After his real identity became known in Sotogrande, he moved to Cuba, where he settled in the town of Sagua La Grande and moved in with a woman named Yudenia Sosa Martínez, with whom he had previously had an affair during his visits to Cuba in the 1990s. Glitter renewed his relationship with Martínez and fathered a son with her, who was named Gary Jr. Following a crackdown on sex tourists in Cuba, Glitter left the country before his son's birth, and never met him.[54][55] After leaving Cuba, he moved to Cambodia and rented an apartment in Phnom Penh. In late 2002, he was detained over his previous sex offenses and spent four days in jail before being released on bail. In January 2003, he was deported from Cambodia to Thailand on a flight to Bangkok.[56][57][58][59] He subsequently settled in Vietnam.[60]
From March 2005, Glitter resided in Vũng Tàu, Vietnam, where he rented a luxury seaside villa, and applied for permanent residency in the country. He came to the attention of Vietnamese authorities after being banned from a nightclub for allegedly groping a teenage waitress and eyewitnesses reporting seeing him take two young girls into his home. On 12 November 2005, he fled his home. A 15 year old girl was found living in his flat and questioned by authorities. Police began searching for Glitter. He was arrested on 20 November at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City while trying to board a flight to Bangkok. Six Vietnamese girls and women, aged from 11 to 23, claimed that Glitter had had sex with them; the age of consent in Vietnam is 16.[61][62][63]
After his arrest, Glitter was turned over to provincial police from Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu and returned to Vũng Tàu and held on suspicion of having sex with the two underage girls. Glitter was held in jail throughout the criminal investigation, which was completed on 26 December 2005. The charge of rape was dropped for "lack of evidence" (according to Glitter's lawyer), although the singer admitted that an 11-year-old girl had slept in his bed. Glitter could have faced execution by firing squad if found guilty of child rape.[64] After having received compensatory payments from Glitter, the families of the girls appealed for clemency for him.[65]
On 2 March 2006, Glitter was tried on charges of committing obscene acts with two girls, aged 10 and 11, facing up to 14 years in prison if convicted. The following day he was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison. The sentence included mandatory deportation at the end of his sentence, and payment of 5 million Vietnamese đồng (US$315) to his victims' families.[66] Judge Hoàng Thanh Tùng said "He sexually abused and committed obscene acts with children many times in a disgusting and sick manner."[22][65][67][68][69][70] Glitter continued to deny any wrongdoing, claiming to have been framed by British tabloid newspapers.[71]
Glitter, in an interview with BBC News in May 2006, denied he was a paedophile, and claimed not to have knowingly had sex with anyone under 18. He said that he had hoped he could put his life back on track and have a career after he left prison in England. He continued to blame the press for his downfall and called them "the worst enemy in the world", alleging 'entrapment' by them by paying local girls in a bar to arrange a photo-scoop. He did not comment about his previous conviction for downloading child pornography several years earlier.[72] Christine Beddoe, director of End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking, criticised Glitter and said he was trying to "minimise what he has done", and added, "We must allow children to tell their story and not just have the words of Gadd."[72]
On 15 June 2006, in a closed hearing, the People's Supreme Court of Appeals heard Glitter's appeal for a reduced sentence. The three-judge panel rejected the appeal four weeks later.[73][74][75][76] Although he was calm throughout the 40-minute reading of the verdict, upon leaving the courthouse, he shouted angrily to reporters and denounced Vietnamese justice for not hearing the defence arguments.[77] On 7 February 2007, it was announced that his sentence had been reduced by three months.[78] In anticipation of his release, the Philippines barred Glitter from entering that country as of 16 May 2008.[79]
Imprisonment and release
Glitter served his sentence in Thủ Đức Prison in southern Bình Thuận Province. He shared a cell with 18 other foreign inmates, and was exempted from hard labour due to his age. In 2007, he suffered from high blood pressure, and was put on medication and told to stop buying beer from the prison canteen. On January 4, 2008, he was taken to a prison clinic for treatment for intestinal problems after suffering from diarrhoea. He was kept there after recovering from his intestinal problems when tests showed he also had an irregular heartbeat. Later that month, he suffered a heart attack and collapsed in his cell, and was taken to a hospital in Phan Thiết, where he was kept under police guard. He was visited in hospital by officials from the British Embassy.[80]
Glitter's Vietnamese lawyer, Le Thanh Kinh, said that his client intended to return to the UK, although he had also expressed interest in moving to either Hong Kong or Singapore.[81] In the UK it was reported that he would be placed on the Sex Offenders Register on his return. British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said he should be given a Foreign Travel Order (FTO) banning him from overseas travel: "We need to control him, and he will be [controlled] once he returns to this country."[82]
Glitter was released on 19 August 2008. He was escorted under police guard to Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City and put on board a flight to London via Bangkok. At Bangkok he claimed that he had tinnitus and a heart condition, and refused to board the flight to London despite the efforts of British police sent to escort him, although they had no jurisdiction to take action. A doctor attending to him airside diagnosed him with costochondritis, prescribed him painkillers, and declared him fit for travel. Glitter continued to refuse to leave. He booked himself into a transit lounge room and claimed he was a "free man". He was refused admission to Thailand as a threat to domestic morality. Thai immigration officials gave him a deadline to leave the country, and warned that he would be detained and deported to the UK if he did not leave voluntarily.[83][84][85][86] On the evening of 20 August, he took a flight to Hong Kong, where he requested medical treatment, saying he was suffering a heart attack. The Hong Kong authorities also refused to admit him and he returned to Thailand the next day.[87]
At least 19 countries, including Cuba, Cambodia, and the Philippines, announced that they would refuse entry to Glitter, and on 21 August the Thai authorities stated that he had agreed to return to the UK.[88] He arrived back in the UK at Heathrow Airport at 7:10 am on 22 August 2008, where he was met by British police officers.[89]
On his return to the United Kingdom, Glitter was added to the Sex Offenders Register for life, and stated an intention to appeal against this decision; on 16 January 2009 it was announced that he had abandoned this move.[90]
On 25 June 2008, The Daily Telegraph reported that Glitter planned to record a new album after his prison release. He was quoted as saying "I have an incomplete album that I want to finish. I have been thinking about the plan during my days in jail. I have sung rock 'n' roll for 40 years. After jail, I will continue to rock 'n' roll."[91]
2012 allegations and 2015 conviction
In October 2012, ITV aired the documentary "The Other Side of Jimmy Savile" in its Exposure strand, which detailed allegations of sexual misconduct by the BBC presenter who had died the previous year. Accounts included an accusation against Glitter who was alleged to have raped a 13- or 14-year-old girl in Savile's BBC dressing room.[92] On 28 October, Glitter was arrested and questioned by police in London as part of Operation Yewtree.[93] Glitter was released on police bail until the middle of December, and was subsequently re-bailed until February.[94] On 5 June 2014, Glitter was charged with eight counts of sexual offences committed against two girls aged 12–14 between 1977 and 1980.[95]
On 19 January 2015 Glitter appeared at Southwark Crown Court accused of seven counts of indecent assault, one count of attempted rape, and two other sexual offences, against three girls, between 1975 and 1980.[96] He was accused of sexually assaulting two girls aged 12 and 13 after inviting them backstage to his dressing room, and attempting to rape a girl under the age of 10 after having crept into her bed.[14] The trial lasted two and a half weeks.[97]
On 5 February 2015 he was convicted of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault, and one of having sex with a girl under the age of 13. He was acquitted of the three other counts. He was remanded in custody prior to his sentencing at HM Prison Wandsworth. On 27 February 2015, Judge Alistair McCreath sentenced Glitter to 16 years in prison.[14] In June 2015, four months after his conviction, he was moved to HM Prison Albany where he is currently incarcerated.[98]
In May 2015, Glitter began an appeal against his convictions.[99] On 17 November 2015 Glitter's appeal was denied by the Court of Appeal, which said there was nothing "unsafe" about the conviction.[100]
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