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[ghost]

A Vietnamese court yesterday convicted former British glam rocker Gary Glitter of molesting two underaged Vietnamese girls and sentenced him to three years in prison.

The former glam rocker showed no emotion while the verdict was read, but threw the court into disarray by proclaiming his innocence afterward.

"I haven't done anything. I'm innocent. It's a conspiracy by you know who," Glitter shouted, apparently referring to British tabloid newspapers that had tracked his presence in Vietnam.

In earlier reports Glitter (real name: Paul Francis Gadd) had claimed that he only taught the girls (aged 10 and 11) English at his rented seaside villa in southern Vung Tau. Glitter told the press that he enjoys tutoring underprivileged children in the English language.

The court, in its verdict, cited graphic testimony from the girls that Glitter had fondled and molested them multiple times in his rented home and in nearby hotels.

Glitter, who could have gotten up to seven years for his crime, was given the minimum sentence of three years by the court. The judge later explained that among the factors contributing to the lighter sentence was the US$2000 each that Glitter paid to each girl's family as "compensation" in December (2005).

He has 15 days to appeal his sentence. His attorney Le Thanh Kinh said Glitter would be eligible for parole in a year, after he serves one-third of his time.

Glitter, who looked visibly thinner since his arrest, has been held at Phuoc Co prison outside Vung Tau since November 19, when he was caught at the Ho Chi Minh Cith airport trying to board a flight for Bangkok. Police confiscated his laptop, which had hundreds of pornographic pictures on it.

Meanwhile, Glitter plans to write a book about his life, a journey that took him from the heights of 1970s glam rock fame to a Vietnamese jail cell, his lawyer said.

Photos of Glitter at the trial, show a smiling bald man with a white goatee, who does not look worried in the least about this devastating affair. Other pictures show him laughing and joking with reporters about the whole thing. A very strange attitude, in view of the severity of the charges against him.

Source: Associated Press and Agence France Press

[dmb]

^How the mighty have fallen.
(Gary Glitter that is, not Ghost)

[stillnosheep]

Describing Gary Glitter as a part-time EFL teacher is like describing, oh I don't know ...it is bloody ridiculouys anyway. GG needed to give the court a reason for having the girls in his house so he claimed to be giving them (free) English lessons.

The case had nothing whatsoever to do with any EFL teacher, part-time or otherwise.

That said, as a writer of sensationalist attention-grabbing headlines having little connection with what follows you have a fine career in British tabloid journalism ahead of you my son!

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

With a command of the English Language exhibited by such song titles as Papa Oom Mow Mow he seems perfectly qualified to be an English teacher ... he's also a native speaker ... is overseas ... who wouldn't have given him a job ...

Can you imagine his classes during (his own) song-lyrics gap-fill exercises ... (no smutty pun intended) ... better than most of the teachers they get wheeling in their old guitar ...

... shame he's a convicted sapik really ...