Daily Express, Saturday November 20th , 2005
IN MARCH this year a 60-year-old Briton rented a house at 38 Tran Phu Street in the southern Vietnamese city of Vung Tao. Hidden among the trees, the house was the perfect hideaway for someone who didn’t want his activities scrutinised by prying eyes. It was exactly what Paul Francis Gadd - better known by his stage name, Gary Glitter - was looking for.
After Glitter was released from jail in Britain on child pornography charges he initially left for Cuba, where he found a young wife. But unwelcome there the former glam-rock star set his sights on the paedophile’s golden triangle of Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
Expelled from Cambodia, Vietnam seemed the ideal lair - where he is said to have set himself up with a string of young girls.
The age of consent in Vietnam is 16, and it is illegal for a Vietnamese national to have sex with or stay in the house of a foreigner without a police permit. But while this law is fairly strictly enforced in Hanoi and North Vietnam, the south of the country is a very different matter.
Vung Tau is a city that earns its money from its massage parlours and ‘bia hoi” (”beer and a cuddle”) roadside shacks. The beaches are polluted and nightlife is all it has to offer.
One expat says Glitter would simply have had to make small payments to the police for them to turn a blind eye to his activities.
“All the neighbours would have known what he was up to and have reported his behaviour to the authorities,” says the source. “He would have needed to pre-empt that. But he need not have to pay much more than £50 to protect himself.
“You have to look at this in the Asian context. Local foreigners all seem to have wives much younger than themselves. Some of them even went to Gary’s parties. He’s probably just a bit of a lad to some of them.”
For Glitter, money and a local fixer was a passport to the lifestyle he desired. His presence was known by many expats who work in the city, either in the oil trade or running bars. But it took eight months for one of them to tell a British journalist that Glitter had been spotted.
He was caught leaving his home shortly after 2pm on November 12 with a very young girl on the back of his electric blue Honda Wave motorcycle. He had not been hard to find. Many motorcycle taxi drivers knew the “angry foreigner” who always used to drive the wrong way through roundabouts and swore at people coming in the other direction.
Glitter went shopping for food and medicine and took his own temperature on the street after purchasing a
thermometer.
He was clearly unwell. Four hours later, having been “outed”, he fled with two girls in a chauffeur-driven Toyota heading back to Ho Chi Minh City - the former Saigon - where he was finally cornered at the airport.
Today Glitter will be charged with engaging in “perverse activities with children” - a charge punishable by up to 12 years in jail. He has denied the allegations, insisting that he was just helping the girls with their English.
Paedophiles like Asia. The children are cute, submissive and obedient.
There is well-beaten trail followed by men, usually middle aged, often rich
and all seeking something forbidden and abhorrent their homelands.
For many paedophiles, and Britain is at the top of the list, the trail starts and finishes in tourist friendly Thailand. But it quickly leads on to the fleshpots of Cambodia and Vietnam with a paedophile network on the internet spreading the word on new locations.
Poverty is almost certainly a factor in this ugly trade. But Thailand is considerably better off than many Third World countries which do not have such a trade. Many point to the corrupt police and legal systems in all the countries concerned.
Quite often police officers are directly involved in the trade. If not there police officers, lawyers and court officials waiting to take a pay-off to ensure an acquittal.
Kickbacks in this trade are all pervasive and a nightmare for child activists such as Sudarat Sereewat of Thailand’s Coalition to Fight Against Child Exploitation.
“We know of the existence of a fund which contains some 320 million Thai baht (£4.5 million) for use by paedophiles when they are arrested,” she says. “That shows there are some rich and influential people among them.
“Time and again paedophiles are arrested and acquitted in Thailand -even when they are caught naked with their young charges.”
Glitter has previously tried to hide in Cambodia. After leaving Cuba, he rented a house with a swimming pool in Takdal on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. The city is full of places where very young girls are available.
Even though signs along the road from the capital’s Pochentong airport say, ‘If you have sex with a child in Cambodia you will be prosecuted back home too,’ taxi drivers are known to tout 12-year-old virgins for £250 for the week. Rates for non-virgins range from £10 down to £5.
Glitter had almost the perfect setup. His house could not be photographed from the road. Neighbours were on his payroll. His best friend was Cheng Phon, a former Minister of Culture. His neighbour on the other side was Tai Sinto, under secretary at the Ministry of Works. Prime Minister Hun Sen lived less than a mile away.
With cash and smart lawyers, it seemed he could not be dislodged. But due to campaigning by Mu Sochua, Cambodia’s outspoken Minister of Women and Veterans’ Affairs, he was finally arrested and deported over Christmas 2002. No real reasons were given, although allegations of child abuse were mentioned at the time of his arrest.
Meanwhile, his lawyers in Phnom Penh claim they are now suing the government for taking illegal actions against him.
The gap between the letter of the law and its practice is the same across the region, where the notional clean-up of the sex industry conflicts with economic interest.
Ten years ago the Thai government made it illegal for girls under the age of 18 to enter the sex trade. However, Bangkok still has touts offering tourists much younger children.
Most foreign paedophiles head for the eastern seaside resort of Pattaya, which thrives on its sex trade. Owners of sex establishments pay the police to declare their establishments are not actually involved. It is against the law to run an establishment offering sexual services.
Scores of Britons have been arrested in Thailand but most have been acquitted or left the country while on bail.
They have included magistrates, teachers and social workers. The former deputy head of a children’s home in London has been charged with offences against young boys and got bail with ease.
When interviewed recently he said: “I have no worries. I will be acquitted. Of course I am innocent.”
The man, who has been exposed for alleged offences in the UK, may be right when he said he has no legal problems, as can a former British Honorary Consul in Pattaya, who was entrapped by a newspaper for dealing in child pornography.
So serious is the problem from British paedophiles that Sudarat Sereewat has called on Britain to cancel the passports of all British citizens convicted.
“Of our current caseload in the Thai courts the Britons are right at the top of the list with 18. Next are the French with 12 followed by nine each from Germany and the United States, and five Swiss and five Australians,” she says.
“There are legitimate reasons for stopping these Britons from travelling to South-east Asia. If they get caught here there is ample evidence that money can solve problems.
“Even the parents can be approached by lawyers. The parents would rather take cash sums than let their children go through the court system. Some just see it as a damage which should be paid for.
“We would be glad if these paedophiles were simply prevented from arriving here.”
Meanwhile, as the Glitter drama continues, there are indications that this is becoming too much of a headache for Vietnamese authorities.
“We are very confused in dealing with this case,” a Vung Tau People’s Committee source was reported as saying.
“If we bring him to court it will be legally complicated as it involves the detention of a foreigner in Vietnam.
However, if we don’t bring him to court, other countries will not respect Vietnam in the field of fighting child abuse.”
“That’s quite typical,” says another source. “Vietnam can save face by deporting him, while at the same time taking something under the table to dismiss a prosecution.”
Footnote: Glitter was finally charged with child abuse, but he was allowed to escape child rape charges after paying the families of two girls US$2000 in a settlement agreed with police and the court.