Rocker Glitter says teaching, not abusing, girls

Rocker Glitter says teaching, not abusing, girls
Tue Nov 22, 3:53 AM ET

British rocker Gary Glitter has denied child molestation allegations in Vietnam, telling police he was just teaching English to young girls, state media reported on Tuesday.
"When they met me, they all told me that they were older than 20," the official Thanh Nien newspaper quoted the 61-year-old rocker, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, as saying.
Glitter, who said he came to the southern resort town of Vung Tau looking for tourism investment opportunities, said he was helping girls with their English, the paper said.
The Vietnamese-language Thanh Nien newspaper said police had identified five girls who had admitted to having had sex with Glitter. One of the girls was 12 years old, the paper said.
The age of consent in Vietnam is 16 and sex with minors is punishable by up to 12 years in jail.
Vung Tau police told Reuters they were keeping Glitter in custody for questioning over the allegations. They did not comment on his denial.
The Saigon Giai Phong newspaper said Glitter had requested a defense lawyer but had turned down a list of international lawyers provided by the British Consulate.
Police detained Glitter at Ho Chi Minh City airport on Saturday as he tried to board a plane to the Thai capital, Bangkok.
Glitter was sentenced to four months in jail in Britain in 1999 after being found guilty of storing more than 4,000 images of child pornography on the hard drive of his computer.
After his release, he left Britain for Cuba and then later turned up in Phnom Penh.
Child rights activists hounded him out of Cambodia twice and had his name put on an entry blacklist, although Glitter filed lawsuits last year fighting the deportation orders.
Vietnamese newspapers have reported Glitter had been in Vietnam for about a year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051122/music_nm/vietnam_glitter_dc_3