Glitter agrees to return to London

5:36pm Thursday 21st August 2008

Paedophile Gary Glitter has agreed to return to London, according to police in Thailand.

However, Police Major General Phongdej Chaiprawat could not say when Glitter would leave Bangkok nor which flight he would be taking.

Glitter, 64, has been twice refused entry into Thailand and once turned away from Hong Kong after being released from jail in Vietnam.

He had served two years and nine months of a three-year sentence for abusing two girls aged 10 and 11. Under the terms of his release he was due to board a connecting flight to London's Heathrow airport but refused claiming ill health.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, is at the centre of an international game of ping-pong as country after country refuses him leave to enter.

The shamed former pop star touched down in Bangkok, Thailand, for the second time in a week after being barred from Hong Kong. On his arrival he was told by Thai authorities that he was not welcome.

Thai Police Colonel Worawat Amornwiwat said Glitter would once again be denied entry to the country.

A growing list of countries have said they would deny him entry but with the British Government unable to force Glitter to return to the UK, an end to the bizarre situation still looks some way off.

The Foreign Office said it had no idea when the disgraced singer would return to the UK and said they had no power to bring him back to Britain. A spokesman said: "It's our understanding that he's arrived in Bangkok. He will either try to go somewhere else or come back to the UK."

Immigration police in Bangkok said it was the responsibility of Thai Airways to make sure Glitter left the country. If and when the former glam rock star arrives in the UK, he will be met at the airport by police officers and served with an order which will effectively put him on the sex offenders register.

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