British rocker Glitter fakes illness to miss UK flight
Persona non grata: British rocker Gary Glitter walks at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday. Glitter was stuck at Bangkok airport after faking illness to avoid boarding a flight to Britain following his release from a Vietnamese prison for child sex abuse.Picture: Reuters
Thursday, August 21, 2008
SHAMED glam rocker Gary Glitter was stuck at Bangkok airport yesterday after faking illness to avoid a flight to Britain following his release from a Vietnamese prison for child sex abuse, Thai police said.
The 64-year-old Briton, whose real name is Paul Gadd, flew to Bangkok after being booted out of the communist southeast Asian country on Tuesday, the day he completed his three-year sentence.
He had a connecting flight to London but refused to board the plane, apparently fearful of the hostile media and public reception he is certain to receive in Britain, where he has already served jail time for child pornography offences.
"He claimed to have tinnitus in his ears and declined to board the flight to London," airport immigration chief Pongdej Chaiprawaj said, adding that Glitter had been declared an "undesirable" and would not be let in to Thailand.
"He is banned from entering because he was jailed and he could pose a threat to domestic morality," he said.
Glitter, sporting a long white goatee beard and with his face partially hidden by a faded denim baseball cap and a battered pair of spectacles, is now stuck in limbo in the "no man's land" part of the airport.
An American lawyer claiming to represent him said a colleague was trying to meet him at the airport amid concerns for his health.
After being holed up for more than 12 hours in a transit lounge rest area called the Louis Tavern, Glitter disappeared through a fire-door into the bowels of the airport escorted by a dozen immigration and airport officials.
He smiled at reporters tailing him, but declined to say anything, other than that he was "fine ". The British tabloid press, which had more than a dozen reporters on his Thai Airways flight from Vietnam, said he had collapsed in a bedroom at the Tavern, complaining of heart problems and demanding hospital treatment.
Reuters
The 64-year-old Briton, whose real name is Paul Gadd, flew to Bangkok after being booted out of the communist southeast Asian country on Tuesday, the day he completed his three-year sentence.
He had a connecting flight to London but refused to board the plane, apparently fearful of the hostile media and public reception he is certain to receive in Britain, where he has already served jail time for child pornography offences.
"He claimed to have tinnitus in his ears and declined to board the flight to London," airport immigration chief Pongdej Chaiprawaj said, adding that Glitter had been declared an "undesirable" and would not be let in to Thailand.
"He is banned from entering because he was jailed and he could pose a threat to domestic morality," he said.
Glitter, sporting a long white goatee beard and with his face partially hidden by a faded denim baseball cap and a battered pair of spectacles, is now stuck in limbo in the "no man's land" part of the airport.
An American lawyer claiming to represent him said a colleague was trying to meet him at the airport amid concerns for his health.
After being holed up for more than 12 hours in a transit lounge rest area called the Louis Tavern, Glitter disappeared through a fire-door into the bowels of the airport escorted by a dozen immigration and airport officials.
He smiled at reporters tailing him, but declined to say anything, other than that he was "fine ". The British tabloid press, which had more than a dozen reporters on his Thai Airways flight from Vietnam, said he had collapsed in a bedroom at the Tavern, complaining of heart problems and demanding hospital treatment.
Reuters
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