Glitter's Get-Out-of-Jail Pass?

01/10/2007 10:25 AM, E! Online
Josh Grossberg

Gary Glitter apparently has a whole new group of fans.

The "Do You Wanna Touch" singer, currently serving a three-year sentence in a Vietnamese prison for sexually abusing two girls, may earn his freedom much sooner than expected after fellow inmates nominated him for early release, according to published reports.

His attorney, Le Thanh Kinh, told reporters Wednesday that officials at the Thu Duc detention center may place the 62-year-old glam rocker on a list recommending presidential amnesty. The government traditionally grants the reprieve to mark the traditional Tet holiday, aka Vietnamese New Year, that gets underway in February.

Under Vietnam law, prisoners can qualify for early release if they exhibit good behavior, pay compensation to the victims' families and if fellow inmates recommend them.

"The management of the prison must decide whether he will be on the list of prisoners eligible for amnesty," Kinh said. "I believe he will be part of the list but I have no information about it."

The attorney said that the bouffant-wigged crooner could get out as early as May, after having served at least half his term. Glitter was credited with about one-third of his time served for his imprisonment before his trial.

Tran Huu Thong, the director of the prison, was quoted telling the Times of London that the English entertainer had met all the conditions and, in all likelihood, will be paroled like the others who receive the recommendation.

The entertainer, whose real name is Francis Paul Gadd, was found guilty last March of committing obscene acts with two girls, aged 10 and 11.

Glitter has been locked up since being caught trying to board a plane out of the country in November 2005.  He has maintained his innocence, insisting he was only tutoring the girls in English and allowed them to sleep in his bed because they were afraid of ghosts.

A Vietnamese court didn't buy the ghost defense and sentenced him to three years. The entertainer appealed, but the People's Supreme Court upheld the conviction after reviewing all the evidence, including testimony from the children themselves.

Glitter, best known for his made-for-sports anthem "Rock and Roll, Part 2," will have to register with U.K. authorities and be added to a sex offenders database should he go back to his native Britain.

He previously ran afoul of the law in 1999, pleading guilty in Britain to 54 charges of child pornography. He ended up serving two months in prison and was placed on a child sex offender list. He tried to relocate to Cambodia, but child advocacy groups forced the country to expel him. He eventually settled in Vietnam.