Gary Glitter's child sex abuse trial will take place in February, according to his lawyer Le Thanh Kinh who is reported to have said: "The general idea is to speedily end the procedures and go before a local court by end of January but more probably early February."
As previously reported, Glitter was arrested at the end of last year on suspicion of committing obscene acts with children, after several young girls in his adopted home of Vung Tau, Vietnam came forward to claim abuse. Last week Vietnamese police announced they were dropping a charge of child rape against Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, due to lack of evidence, but the singer will still be tried for committing lewd acts with children. That said, Glitter has apparently paid off the two youngest alleged victims, aged eleven and twelve, giving the families involved $2000 each (just over £1k, but equivalent to about three times the average annual wage in Vietnam) so that they would drop their accusations.
Despite the pay-offs, Glitter maintains his innocence. If convicted of the lesser crime he will avoid the death sentence, but could still face twelve years in prison.