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08
February 2006
Gary
Glitter's Child Abuse
Sentence
Cut
Gary
Glitter
has had his three-year
child molestation
sentence in Vietnam
reduced by three
months.
Glitter,
real name Paul Francis
Gadd, was convicted of
the sexual abuse of two
Vietnamese girls in
March 2006.
Tran
Thi Thien Huong, a judge
on the deciding panel,
said the decision under
a national amnesty means
Gary Glitter will now be
released in August
2008.
The
incidents involved two
girls aged 10 and 11
from the southern
coastal city of Vung
Tau.
Vietnam
traditionally reduces
the sentences of inmates
with good prison records
as part of a nationwide
Lunar New Year jail
amnesty.
Glitter
could have had his
sentence reduced by up
to half under the
amnesty.
Glitter's
lawyer had earlier told
journalists his client
could be freed from Thu
Duc prison, in the south
of the country, in as
little as a
week.
The
panel of three judges
said they had to balance
Glitter's good behaviour
in prison with the
seriousness of the
crimes he had committed.
Other amnesties could
reduce his sentence
further.
Christine
Beddoe, director of
child protection group
Ecpat UK, said she was
"disappointed" that
Glitter's sentence had
been cut.
"Ecpat
UK fully believes that
Paul Gadd should serve
the fullest sentence in
order to protect
children in Vietnam and
the rest of the world,"
she said. "We believe
that the British
government must request
his deportation at the
end of his sentence and
immediate return to the
UK, and he should be put
on the sex offenders'
register."
After
a two-day trial that
attracted a great deal
of media attention,
Glitter was jailed and
ordered to pay 5m
Vietnamese dong
(£180/$315) to his
victims' families. He
has been in jail since
November
2005.
Ahead
of the decision,
Glitter's lawyer, Le
Thanh Kinh, was
optimistic that the
judges would reduce the
sentence.
He
said: "Glitter is an old
man and he is not in
good health. And he has
paid compensation to the
victims as required by
the court."
Gary
Glitter was convicted of
possessing child
pornography in the UK in
1999 and served half of
a four-month jail
sentence.
He
later went to Cambodia,
which permanently
expelled him in
2002.
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