Southern court ready to try Brit glam rock star

Preparations are set for the trial of Gary Glitter, charged with “obscene acts with children”, as the hearing is set for this Thursday and Friday, the southern Ba Ria Vung Tau People’s Court said Monday February 27.
Tran Thi D. and Tran Thi Thao N., 12 and 13 respectively, along with their custodians will be present at the hearing. But the girls as yet do not have their own defense lawyers.
Five witnesses will also be summonsed to the court.
Some 20 foreign news agencies have registered to attend the hearing, but their requests, as well as their local colleagues’ were turned down to protect the identity of the two girls, Nguyen Van Co, head of the provincial court told Thanh Nien.
The public and reporters, however, will be allowed in to hear the verdict, scheduled for Friday.
Glam rocker Gary Glitter, 61, now in detention in Vung Tau since his arrest while he was trying to board a plane to Bangkok in November last year, continues to deny that he was involved with the girls in any other capacity than teaching English.
He also said at times the girls slept at his residence out of fear of ghosts, meaning they did not want to go home at night
Officials said the 1970s rocker, whose real name is Paul Gadd, faces three to seven years in jail and may be deported after serving time in Vietnam.
Police investigators have said they found no grounds to charge him with raping children, a much more serious offence that can carry the death penalty.
Glitter was jailed for four months in Britain in 1999 after being found guilty of storing more than 4,000 images of child pornography on his computer.

 

Category: Society