Pop star set for release from Viet prison

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Former pop star Gary Glitter, set for release from jail in Vietnam, did not hear from friends or family as he served three years for child sexual abuse.

Glitter, 64, is due to be released this week, The Mail on Sunday reported. He would have been released more than a year ago, but an outcry from nine British charities that demanded he serve his full sentence kept him behind bars, said his lawyer Le Thanh Kinh.

"I was shocked that so many people in England objected. In all the time he has been in prison he has never had a visit from anyone in his family or any letters," Kinh said.

Glitter, whose real name Paul Gadd, will leave Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday, bound for London, the newspaper said.

There is suspicion that Glitter will not re-board the plane when it makes a stop-over, likely in Bangkok, the report said. Glitter may choose to live in Singapore or Hong Kong, Kinh said.

"The Vietnamese are deporting Gary but after that he is a free man. If he wants to get off in Bangkok that is up to him," Kinh said.

Glitter, 63, was convicted of committing obscene acts with two girls, ages 10 and 11. He was convicted in Britain in 1999 of possessing child pornography and is registered on the U.K. sex offenders' registry.