REJECTED BY VIETNAM, THAILAND, HONG KONG, NOW POP PERVERT GLITTER AGREES TO RETURN TO BRITAIN
By Andrew Drummond and Sam Greenhill
Paedophile Gary Glitter has agreed to fly back to Britain after two days in international limbo as he was refused entry to Hong Kong and Thailand, according to Thai police.
Officers said the disgraced former pop star has finally agreed to board a flight back to London despite his attempts to avoid returning to his home country.
The paedophile and former pop star has agreed to return to Britain after being caught in a sting that resulted in him being served deportation papers in Hong Kong.
Thai police want him on the first available direct flight back to London. A space is being held for him on flight TG 901, which departs at 1.10am local time and lands at Heathrow Terminal 3 at 6am tomorrow.
Reluctant: Gary Glitter flying back to Thailand today. Police there say the convicted paedophile has now agreed to take a flight back to Britain
The deal came after it emerged that Glitter had appealed to the Foreign Office to help him out of his travel deadlock.
But an airport source said he had fallen into a trap by boarding the plane to Hong Kong:
“Gary Glitter was allowed to fly to Hong Kong. It was a trap and he fell for it. He was given the deportation papers as soon as he touched down.
‘They can now legally make him get on that plane back to the UK, or put him in a detention centre.
‘Thai immigration police colluded with Hong Kong to make this happen as neither country wants him. Consular officials are speaking to him.”
A spokesman said: ‘It’s our understanding that he’s arrived in Bangkok. He will either try to go somewhere else or come back to the UK.’
Some 19 countries had refused the convicted paedophile entry and Thai officials had threatened to put him in a detention centre if he refused to leave for Britain.
The 64-year-old, travelling under his real name Paul Gadd, was said to be trying to book flights to Sri Lanka and Singapore this morning before accepting his fate.
With an estimated £5 million fortune, there were fears that he could bribe his way into a country and resume his pursuit of children.
The former singer appeared totally determined to avoid returning to the one country he will certainly be allowed into - Britain.
He was released from prison in Vietnam on Tuesday after serving a three-year jail term for abusing girls aged 11 and 12.
From there he was deported to Thailand, supposedly to board a flight from Bangkok back to Britain but on arrival, he refused to budge.
Last night it was suggested that an announcement by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith on restricting travel by paedophiles was behind this decision.
The sleeping creep: Glitter snoozes on a Thai Ariways flight to Hong Kong yesterday
After a farcical 20-hour standoff with immigration officials, he eventually took a Thai Airlines flight to Hong Kong.
Glitter had rebuffed all attempts to coax him aboard two London flights from Bangkok, and the Thais had made it clear he was not welcome to stay in their country, declaring him a ‘threat to domestic morality’.
During the confrontation, he was overheard saying: ‘I’ve been in jail three years. Now I want to do some shopping in Hong Kong.’
Once aboard Thai Airlines Flight TG602 to Hong Kong and settled into his business class seat, Glitter began issuing instructions to cabin staff, telling them: ‘I am quite famous and hard of hearing. Please can you arrange for an escort for me at the other end?’
He used an on-board phone to call a friend in Hong Kong, asking him to book accommodation in Wanchai - the city’s lively night club area. ‘Just leave any message with Thai airways ground staff. They will know how to contact me,’ he said.
The only reporter on the plane, Andrew Drummond, who was in the seat behind him, asked Glitter his plans and was told: ‘I am travelling to Hong Kong for medical treatment.’
Stop right there: Gary Glitter arrives at Hong Kong airport where he is greeted by immigration officials
Drummond said: ‘On landing, Glitter left the plane after being met by Cathay Pacific staff and an immigration official.
‘He smiled as he was fast-tracked through the Diplomats and Airline Staff immigration point, but once out of sight the smile must have been wiped off his face.’
At least 19 countries have said they will refuse him entry.
Meanwhile, the Home Office denied reports it had blundered by issuing him a new passport last year, allowing him to roam the world.
A spokesman insisted his passport - number 761028553 - was in fact issued in 2002, four years before he was jailed in Vietnam.
The spokesman said: ‘There was no blunder. We do not enforce the return of sex offenders, and he was entitled to a passport.’
While Glitter, 64, was doing his utmost to avoid the UK, Home Secretary Miss Smith seemed determined to bring him home and keep him here.
She was accused at Westminster of trying to manage the news by waiting for a ‘celebrity pervert’ to promote her tough measures to curtail paedophiles’ rights to travel.
In fact, there were suspicions Miss Smith had actually triggered the Glitter farce by panicking him into refusing to board the flight to Britain.
Please let me in: Glitter tries to persuade Chinese officials to let him into Hong Kong
While at Bangkok, he watched the BBC which was broadcasting that paedophiles would never be allowed to travel again.
Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve, said: ‘Government policy timetable should not be dictated by the movements of a serial sex offender with a media profile.
‘This would be the crudest form of news management in an extremely sensitive area.’
Embarrassment: Home Secretary Jacqui Smith
Miss Smith admitted that she had found it ‘ embarrassing’ that Glitter had not come home but said: ‘No paedophile is a celebrity, every paedophile needs to be controlled.’
The former star, who in his 1970s heyday sold 18million records and has a personal fortune of £5million, told reporters he was planning to write a book to ‘prove’ his innocence.
He said: ‘I should never have been in there. I was set up”.
Pictures Andrew Chant
