Glitter 'agrees' to return to UK
Ex-pop star Gary Glitter returns to Thailand
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Thursday, 21, Aug 2008 06:33
Ex-pop star Gary Glitter has reportedly agreed to return to the UK after he was refused entry into Thailand and then Hong Kong.
Glitter was released from prison in Vietnam on Tuesday after serving almost three years for sexual molestation of underage girls.
He was later deported from the country and put on a flight bound for the UK via Thailand. But when he arrived in Bangkok he attempted to enter the country on medical grounds complaining he was suffering from a heart attack and refused to board his connecting flight to Britain.
When he was denied entry, he boarded a Thai Airways flight to Hong Kong but Chinese authorities also refused his entry.
Chinese immigration officials informed the Foreign Office last night that they had barred Glitter's entry.
Thai immigration officials have declared Glitter a "persona non grata" and are confident that he be on a flight back to the UK soon, possibly this evening.
"We have to expel him to Britain, his homeland and the only country which must allow him to enter as he's a national," Colonel Voravat Amornvivat told the AFP news agency.
"He's likely to leave tonight but as of now we still can't confirm his flight," Colonel Voravat added.
Glitter was sentenced to three years for "obscene acts with children" after being jailed in November 2005.
His sentence was reduced by three months for good behaviour in February this year.
Should Glitter return to the UK he will be met by police and forced to sign the sex offenders register.
In 1999 he was sentenced to four months in jail in the UK after pleading guilty to charges of downloading pornography depicting children being abused.
He shot to fame in the 1970s for his glam-rock performances of songs including I Love You Love Me Love and Do You Wanna Touch Me.