Gary Glitter is to appeal the three year prison sentence he was handed earlier this month in Vietnam for sexually abusing two young girls aged eleven and twelve. Glitter's lawyer, Le Thanh Kinh, says he recently met up with his client at Phuoc Co prison, and the singer, real name Paul Gadd, signed appeal papers. Kinh told reporters: "He told me he was innocent so he has to appeal to clear this matter."
The former pop star may not, in any case, have to serve the entire term, with reports suggesting that he may in fact be considered for release after serving a third of the time. He will, however, be deported on conclusion of his sentence and could face more charges if he returns to the UK. Gadd seems keen to pursue his claim of innocence. As previously reported, Glitter feels his conviction is the result of a conspiracy - on his exit from court on 3 Mar, he told Reuters "It's a conspiracy. You know who. One of Great Britain's newspapers."
The odds wouldn't seem to be in his favour, however. Both the UK and Vietnamese governments are keen to crack down on increasing sex tourism traffic, and Glitter's case doesn't seem particularly promising, especially as Chief investigator Colonel Nguyen Duc Trinh believes that the singer may have more victims than actually came forward. Trinh also told reporters following the trial that he recovered 2,231 images of child pornography from Glitter's computer and 31 video clips during the course of his investigation, saying "biologically, Glitter is not a normal person. A normal person would never store such photos."