Shamed rocker Glitter refused Hong Kong entry

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Hong Kong customs officials refused entry Thursday to British glam rocker Gary Glitter, making the Chinese territory the second place to turn away the convicted child molester.

The Hong Kong government was making plans to deport Glitter back to Thailand, which earlier also refused to let him in, a Thai immigration official said.

Glitter, 64, served nearly three years in a Vietnam prison on a child molestation conviction and was deported Tuesday from Ho Chi Minh City.

He was scheduled to switch flights in Bangkok, Thailand, en route to England.

But Glitter refused to board the connecting flight, and Thai immigration officials would not let him clear customs.

He remained confined in the transit lounge of Bangkok's international airport while officials tried to negotiate with him.

Eventually, he boarded a flight bound for Hong Kong on Wednesday. But once the plane arrived in Hong Kong, Glitter learned he was not welcome there.

Glitter, born Paul Gadd, was a rock institution during the 1970s -- topping the music charts multiple times.

He is best known for a stadium anthem song called "Rock and Roll (Part 2)." The song -- with its one-word chorus "Hey" -- is played at professional sporting events around the world.

But his music stopped in March 2006, when he was convicted in Vietnam of sexually abusing two Vietnamese girls when they were ages 9 and 11.
One children's advocate called for his return to London.

"It's important that Glitter comes back here and that he's carefully risk-assessed here in the U.K., where we can do that," said Zoe Hilton. "It's important that we stop him traveling overseas again where he is a known risk of abusing children."

His trouble in Vietnam was foreshadowed by other tawdry acts. In 1999 he served four months in a U.K. prison after dozens of images of child pornography were found on his computer.

At the time, he expressed "deep regret," and then moved abroad -- first to Cuba, then to Cambodia, before surfacing in Vietnam -- where he quickly landed himself back in legal hot water.--