Glitter Appeals Molestation Conviction

03/17/2006 9:44 AM, E! Online
Josh Grossberg

Gary Glitter wants a do-over in his child molestation case.

The "Do You Wanna Touch" singer, who was convicted of committing obscene acts on two girls, ages 10 and 11, at his seaside villa in the Vietnamese coastal resort town of Vung Tau, is appealing his three-year jail sentence, his attorney confirmed to the Bangkok Post Thursday.

"Gary Glitter signed the letter of appeal yesterday morning," lawyer Le Thanh Kinh told the paper. "The letter says that the evidence against Gary Glitter is not objective and he asks that the court reconsider his case."

The 61-year-old entertainer, real name Paul Francis Gadd, was given three years in the slammer on Mar. 3 after he was found guilty of molesting the minors on numerous occasions at his residence and nearby hotels.

Since being detained on Nov. 19 in Ho Chi Minh City while trying to board a plane to Bangkok, Glitter has maintained his innocence, claiming he was only tutoring the girls in English and allowed them to sleep in his bed because they were afraid of ghosts.

In the hopes of staving off hard time in the country's Phuoc Co prison--not the most welcome place for a bouffant-wigged crooner better known for his sports-friendly anthem "Rock and Roll Part 2"--Glitter signed a petition which Kinh delivered to the People's Court of Ba Ria-Vung Tau asking the panel to reconsider the punishment.

According to the legal eagle, that panel will send his appeal along to the People's Supreme Court which could take as long as three months before issuing a ruling.

Things could have been a lot worse for the faded British glam rocker. Glitter avoided the maximum seven years in prison and because of lack of evidence, prosecutors did not slap him with the more serious count of child rape, a charge that might have brought the musician death by firing squad if convicted.

The judge presiding over his molestation trial was moved to sentence him to the minimum, partly because Glitter--in a shameless bid for the court's leniency--already ponied up $2,000 to each of the victim's families for their "cooperation."

Should his appeal be turned down, Glitter will have no choice but to serve his sentence, or at least a third of it, since he'll be up for parole after a year. The former hitmaker will then be deported back to Britain once his term is done.

Glitter has run afoul of the law before. In 1999, he served a two-month sentence in his native England and was placed on a child sex-offender list after pleading guilty to 54 counts of possessing kiddie porn. He later turned up in Cambodia, but was expelled from the country after child-welfare activists petitioned the government. He eventually settled in Vietnam.