Vietnam Postpones Gary Glitter Appeal

05/16/2006 6:16 AM, AP


Vietnam has postponed the appeals trial of British rocker Gary Glitter until early June, a court official said Tuesday.

The trial, which was originally scheduled for May 19, was postponed until after June 5, said Bui Ngoc Hoa, head of the People's Supreme Court of Appeals in Ho Chi Minh City.

"There are things we need to prepare more thoroughly," he said without elaborating.

Hoa said the one-day trial will be sometime between June 6-9.

Glitter, 62, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison by a Vietnamese court on March 3 for committing obscene acts with 10- and 11-year-old girls at his rented seaside villa and at a hotel.

He was arrested in November while trying to leave the country on a flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok, Thailand.

Glitter, a 1970s glam rock icon in Britain, has maintained his innocence and says he is a victim of a British tabloid conspiracy.

He was also convicted in Britain in 1999 for possessing child pornography. He served half of a four-month jail term.