Glitter kicked out of Hong Kong

Shamed pop star Gary Glitter has returned to Thailand after being refused entry to Hong Kong. The 64-year-old was refused entry to the Chinese territory after flying there on Thai Airways service TF 602, the Foreign Office confirmed. Chinese authorities informed their UK counterparts they had barred Glitter from the country after his arrival. Glitter, travelling under his real name, Paul Gadd, spent more than 20 hours in the transit lounge at Bangkok on Wednesday following his release from a Vietnamese prison on Tuesday. Under the terms of his release he was due to board a connecting flight to London's Heathrow airport but refused claiming ill health. He eventually flew to Hong Kong after Thai immigration officials told him he would be taken to a detention centre if he continued to refuse to leave the country. Asked why he was making the trip, Glitter reportedly said: "I am travelling to Hong Kong for medical treatment." Glitter was treated for a heart condition while in prison and he has said he wants to return to the UK for treatment. He served two years and nine months of a three-year sentence in Vietnam for abusing two girls aged ten and 11. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said Britain cannot enforce Glitter's return but must have a plan if he did. Ms Smith announced tighter controls on the movement of paedophiles on Wednesday, saying: "What I am concerned about is, whoever the individual sex offender is, that we have in place the necessary provisions to monitor them. "No paedophile is a celebrity, every paedophile needs to be controlled." She said it was "pretty hard to imagine it would be legitimate for him to travel abroad again". But she added: "If you are a British citizen, you have the right to use the NHS, whatever we think about an individual, and this is a pretty despicable person."

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ITN | August 21, 2008

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