Glitter's release reignites paedophile debate
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Convicted paedophile Gary Glitter refused to travel to Britain. (Reuters: Nguyen Huy Kham)
Britain announced new measures to crack down on child sex offenders, as the release of 1970s glam rocker Gary Glitter from jail in Vietnam reignited fierce debate about paedophiles.
In a country where public anger over paedophiles has led to vigilante stonings in recent years, cabinet ministers and national newspapers hit out as shamed Glitter spent his first full day out of prison.
The singer was freed and deported to Bangkok on Tuesday - with an onward ticket booked to London - after serving nearly three years in jail for the sexual molestation of children.
At the same time, Britain's Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled a raft of new proposals to tighten restrictions on child sex offenders and their movements.
She admitted the announcement was deliberately timed to coincide with Glitter's scheduled return.
However, the 64-year-old - real name Paul Gadd - refused to travel to Britain and Thailand deported him on a flight to Hong Kong. Hong Kong, meanwhile, has refused him entry.
Ms Smith's proposed measures could include taking away paedophiles' passports and extending the length of travel bans.
"The UK has a rigorous system in place for managing child sex offenders which is among the toughest in the world. The changes I'm announcing today will strengthen that even further," she said.
Branding Glitter "despicable," Ms Smith said she found it "pretty hard to imagine" that he would be allowed to travel abroad again.
She dismissed suggestions that the Government - which is struggling to regain the initiative amid record low poll ratings - had wanted a "celebrity paedophile" to promote its crackdown and was "embarrassed" that he had not yet returned.
Dominic Gieve, Home Affairs spokesman for the main opposition Conservatives, blasted the Government, saying Smith should have been looking at the issue regardless of Glitter's case.
"This would be the crudest form of news management in an extremely sensitive area," he told London's Evening Standard newspaper.
"If the Government put as much effort into doing simple tasks as they did trying to spin a good story out of a very serious situation, we may not be in this position."
Had he returned to Britain on Wednesday, Glitter would have been interviewed by the police, required to sign the sex offenders register and inform the police of his movements.
Back in 2000, Britain's biggest-selling newspaper decided to "name and shame" alleged paedophiles following the abduction and murder of an eight-year-old girl.
The News of the World's campaign was followed by vigilante action, with stone-throwing mobs gathering outside the homes of suspected paedophiles, smashing windows and torching cars. Innocent men were wrongly identified.
In 2001, Brass Eye, a spoof current affairs program satirising media hysteria on paedophilia - featuring lynchings, attacks on paediatricians and hoaxed celebrities making ludicrous statements - itself earned a furious backlash.
And the underlying outrage shows little sign of having calmed.
The Daily Mail newspaper said: "No country in its right mind would want this pervert at large on its soil. All we can hope is that, wherever he ends up, he will be locked away until he ceases to be a threat to children."
The Daily Mirror newspaper branded Glitter "Club Class Paedo" on its front page, while The Sun, which spoke to "Gary Gloater" on the plane from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok, ran the headline: "Creepy Glitter stroked my arm and called me sweetie".
Doctor Michele Elliott, of the children's charity Kidscape, told The Daily Mail: "It makes you sick. He should go and live on a desert island. Nobody wants him."
- AFP
