Garry Glitter - Sick Pervert

[Global Citizen]

Read this and weep! The last paragraph especially gets me. Do British diplomats have nothing better to do than visit a convicted paedophile to ascertain this sick pervert's health?

Where's the justice and only 3 years for someone with his history. I would take great pleasure in having him castrated and it is at times like this that I really appreciate Singapore's tough laws.


Gary Glitter jailed for three years for child abuse in Vietnam

Thu Mar 2, 10:42 PM ET


BA RIA, Vietnam (AFP) - Former British glam rocker Gary Glitter has been sentenced to three years in prison by a Vietnamese court for sexually abusing two underage girls.

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The disgraced 1970s pop star was accused of molesting two local girls aged 11 and 12 last year at his rented seaside bungalow in the southern resort town of Vung Tau, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.

Glitter, 61, the first foreigner to face a sex crimes trial in post-war Vietnam, has maintained his innocence and claimed he was teaching the girls English, allowing them to stay overnight because they were scared of ghosts.

When he was led into the court building Thursday at the start of his closed-door trial, Glitter beamed broadly at the jostling media pack, flashed a victory sign and yelled "Innocent!" when asked how he felt.

The flamboyant one-time star -- wearing a black tee-shirt, a red bandana and sunglasses -- arrived early Friday soon after 9:40 am (0240 GMT), with the verdict due to be delivered shortly thereafter.

The singer, who served two months in a British jail in 1999 for downloading child pornography, was to face Vietnam's justice system like any other defendant, said senior Provincial People's Committee official Nguyen Ngoc Hung.

"Everyone -- both Vietnamese and foreigners -- who violates the law will be judged under Vietnamese law," he told a media briefing Thursday.

Glitter has been charged with "committing obscene acts with children" after he was arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport on November 19 while trying to board a flight to Thailand.

The faded star, born Paul Francis Gadd, has since paid 2,000 dollars' compensation to the family of each alleged victim. His lawyer Le Thanh Kinh has denied the payments were bribes intended to reduce the charges.

In Thursday's hearing, the relatives of one victim demanded an additional 3,000 dollars from Glitter, while the second girl's family said it would let the court decide on additional payments.

If found guilty and jailed, Glitter would return to his spartan cell behind the mouldy walls and barbed wire along with 400 other inmates in a jail near Vung Tau and possibly be moved to a larger prison elsewhere in the communist country.

It has been a long fall for the ex-rocker once known for his bouffant wigs, extravagant makeup and silver jump suits, who in the 1970s glam era scored a string of hits including "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)".

His trial in the Ba Ria Vung Tau Provincial People's Court is the latest station in an international odyssey that started after the singer's release halfway through his four-month jail sentence in 1999.

Pursued by the British media, Glitter reportedly moved to Cuba, then resettled in Cambodia, where he lived on and off for years before he was expelled in 2002 after reportedly trawling for child sex.

He was found by a London newspaper last year, which said he was living with a teenage girl in Vung Tau, a resort and oil town notorious for its 400 bars and massage parlours, 130 kilometres (80 miles) southeast of Ho Chi Minh City.

Friday's verdict and sentencing hearing were to be open to the media and to British diplomats, who have visited Glitter six times since his arrest and say he is in good health and being treated well.

[Global Citizen]

I have just read in another report that the 2 victims in this case were pimped by their relatives. While this maybe a sad reality in today's world, it is totally incomprehensible and revolting to me.

[Plavt]

GC while it is sad that we have a sick pervert like Paul Gadd who deserves to get his b****** chopped off it is also sad that the economies of some countries give cause for family members to pimp their own relations.
To add insult to injury the governments of such countires often allow such things to go on unhindered just to keep up 'tourist' numbers (so I am informed.)

However, we need to ask ourselves, as repugnant as it may be, why are there such people? Are they so inadequate they must abuse children? Are they incapable of having a relationship with someboy their own age? Hard as it may be I feel it is an issue that has to be addressed simply executing perverts ( as much as that may be desirable) will not solve the problem.

Still GC we can be sure your own child/children will be very well cared for - remember one of your posts.

Plavt.

[Mary Hatch Bailey]

Statisically speaking, the vast majority of people who abuse children, either physically, verbally or sexually, were abused themselves. No excuse of course, just the numbers.

With everyone selling books on self-help and flogging their addictions on tv talk shows, there is no excuse in our society, where affliction is often seen as fashion, for this cycle to continue.

[earthfriendly]

MHB, I have watched some of those talk shows and news segment about this particular problem in the USA. Many of those who sexually abuse young children were once victims and the abuse occurred at a very young age in their lives. There were numerous cases of incests where the poor mommies were totally kept in the dark as the young child was too ashamed to seek help and so many of the moms were in total denial in the beginning. It is hard to believe the man that you love will do such a thing to his own kids. Some even thought the kids may be making it up, well we all know childrens' propensity for wild imaginations.

Much as we condemn the perpetrators, let's not forget the perpetrators were once victims themselves and where were everybody when they were being abused and needed help themselves. The ones being abused today will be potential abusers themselves when they turn adults. Unfortunately from what I gather, this can be an incurable sickness and in such cases drastic measures have to be taken to break the cycle...castration, lifetime isolation from society esp kids... etc. You know what, I can't help but feel very sorry for them too. After all, they are being punished all over again for something that they had no control over when they were a child. I would say as a child, the adults who were supposed to be their guardians failed them and as an adult, society has failed them as we still live in a society that outcasts such individuals. Hopefully, more advancement will be made both in the medicall and psychological sciences so we can come up with a "cure" for this affliction.

P.S. the above does not apply to people who were never victims themselves but takes pleasure in abusing young, vulnerable and unprotected children.

[sapphire]

It is a worldwide problem, not restricted to the US only. What I don't understand is that if you were abused as a child and went through all the trauma, how do you then turn into the same sick person as your abuser?????? How does this work?

If I had a troubled childhood and hated something that my parents did, I would try hard as hell to not make the same mistakes as them, wouldn't I?
I just don't get it.

[earthfriendly]

Sapphire,

That was my inital response until I hear what the experts had to say. Apparently, they were so traumatized by their childhood experiences that it became very internalized and the urge to commit the crime would always be in their subconciousness. Many of them felt awful after having committed the sin but just could not help themselves. It reminds me of drug and cigarette addiction. The abuse totally broke their human spirit and destroyed them for they could never lead a normal life again like you and me. I felt very sad after hearing their side of the story and do you thnk they should accept their fate that even if they had undergone rehabilitation, they may never be 100 % cured and will always be outcast by society? So the best thing to do is to make sure that after they have been released from prison/rehab, they not come into contact with children at all. They should never live close to schools or be scout masters. And USA enacted the Megan's law where parents can log into the website, type in your home address and get a list of sex offenders residing in your neighbourhood. Which was what I did and guess what, it was a long list. I also typed in a few neighbouring zip codes, hoping to find a safer neighbourhood, and same scenario. My conclusion, there really isn't a completely safe neighborhood. It is quite terrifying indeed when you have young children of your own. Somebody I know did the same and on that list is a person who works in a non-profit organization that she has come into contact with. She was totally shocked and could not belief it.

I did not mean to say the problem was unique to USA. Reason I pointed out USA was because the shows, cases and information that I gathered was from USA. However, I do think the problem may be more severe in some countries than others.

[Global Citizen]

Thank-you Plavt for the kind words. I do my best as do most parents but parenting today is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world.

It isn't enough to just bring up decent, responsible kids these days but one has to also shield them from so many outside predators and provide kids with enough street smarts and savvy to recognise dangers in what may appear to be seemingly innocent situations to them. No longer can you leave your kids alone to play at the park for even a short length of time. The internet has become a recruiting ground for many of these sickos who log on to sites where kids surf and lure them. I remember when we lived for 1 year in Toronto and my son was in grade 3. I was thinking about enrolling him in Boy Scouts and was having a conversation one evening with some friends about my decision. They advised me against it because there had been cases of Scout Masters who had sexually abused their young charges while out camping.

A lot of sexual abuse does go unreported and yet there are still far too many cases. As Mary and some others pointed out an abuser usually has a history of being abused but I'm hard pressed to find any sympathy for him/her. Why not seek help for the problem? Gary Glitter is a prime example of a person who's a repeat offender, who can afford psychiatric counselling or medical help of some sort but instead just moves to different countries to continue with his depraved activities.

I used to have a gardener in Jamaica who worked for me. This guy was a regular church goer every Sunday. He worked full time for me and one day he didn't show up. I received a call from his common-law wife who was in tears and told me her husband was being held in lock up as she had called the police to arrest him. His crime was raping his 10 year old step daughter who was now pregnant with his child. Needless to say, I was both shocked and numb. I had unknowingly employed and given this man free reign around the property I lived in with my family. Thank God we found out but for his step daughter, it was a little too late.

[tiki]

I believe he, like many other paedophiles, are probably suffering from a psychological disorder of some sort. Granted they are those who are perverted from the start. It is quite difficult to assess their mental state and even more difficult to actually cure, for lack of a better word, them of this condition.

Perhaps if help had come for them early on there would have been that chance ,they could have control the urges better. Sadly, it is usually too late and the only sort of reform would be criminal detention.

It's quite tricky in a sense, because you don't really know where to start except maybe educating the young generation. They, being the young ones, should be encouraged to discuss openly what ever problems they may have and not frowned upon or waved away especially when the topic of sexuality is brought up.

As for those in Gary Glitter's position, being locked up in prison or a mental institute might only be a temporary solution. It's the follow up counselling sessions and non-discriminative support that they need. It's true some of them can afford the so called counselling or help that they need but why didn't they? Perhaps some are just hardcore perverts, then again perhaps some are just mentally unsound and not able to realise that there is help.

It's hard to to judge somebody for most of the time it's always been physical or circumstantial evidence that decides.

I am in no way condoning what they have done but just like, for example, a klepto... in a way, they need help as well.

They may be predators but in a twisted sort of way, they are victims too.

Be stern with them, yes...

...but do not close any door for help.

[earthfriendly]

Yes tiki, thank you. That was what I wanted to say but you said it better than I do. I had never thought about the timing of intervention but now that you brought it up, I wonder if these victims ordeal was brought forth earlier, rather than later, do they stand a better chance of being rehabilitated.

Until more concrete research/evidence are unearthed, we will never fully arrest this issue.

[Wham]

This is just a tad off topic, but i have been seeing a lot of tv ads and articles on the rehaibiltation efforts that are made in Singapore for those convicted or various offenses, and i find it so admirable. Most people only hear about how harsh the laws are here without having any idea of the efforts that are apparently made to re-habilitate the convicted. I think it is a MUCH better approach then the one we have in the US which leans more toward incarcerate and forget. Would guess the same would apply to sex offenders here.

[Bafana]

I hope he dies there.

[earthfriendly]

This is just a tad off topic, but i have been seeing a lot of tv ads and articles on the rehaibiltation efforts that are made in Singapore for those convicted or various offenses, and i find it so admirable. Most people only hear about how harsh the laws are here without having any idea of the efforts that are apparently made to re-habilitate the convicted. I think it is a MUCH better approach then the one we have in the US which leans more toward incarcerate and forget. Would guess the same would apply to sex offenders here.

Whammy, much as you expressed your disdain for the "average Singaporean" on the mistreated maids forum, SGeans are very compassionate people. It is not easy to see this side of us though as many do act corkily. I remember someone specifically pointed out the SGean Chinese being nastier ones. He does have a point. Do not expect nice pleasantries and the Chinese to go all out to be friendly or sociable but if you live within their circle and interact with them at a deep level, you will see the their true nature. We are very reserve people, not so much a talk-it-out verbal cultures but more about action. Somebody I dated 10 years ago is now in financial dire strait and coming to me asking for help, which I offered him. With his large circle of friends, I asked him why me and was quite pleased with his response. By the way, he is white American.

My Chinese SGean brother-in-law in USA made a loan to his friend to help him buy a house. It is somebody he met at work in USA and hence was not even a lifetime friendship. BIL could have used the money loan out to pay off his personal mortgage. You know what, that guy is an Indian national and has other Indian friends with whom he has longer friendship than with my BIL.

Yes, offering rehab (instead of stigmatising them) is not out-of-nature for us.

I remember SG prison system being criticised by US press for violating human rights. Reason, we put our inmates to work to help earn revenue for the system (prison/ society not sure which on). I feel this is good for the inmates as they are working towards a worthwhile cause and it makes them feel useful (rather than a criminal). It is good for their self-esteem and is also part of rehab. The last time I heard of the US prison system, inmates are bored with their lives within the prison walls. Many are pumping iron and making full use of the exercise equipments there. They are getting stronger physically. Hopefully they don't put their newly-acquired strength to bad use when they are released into the society. USA prison system is so overcrowded that they are releasing people early to make room for newcomers (some are repeat offenders too). The problem has gotten so bad that they are reaching into the pot of people who committed heinous crimes and citizens are coming forward to protest. Their solution ................ build more prisons.


I know this is a bit off thread but just feel like sharing my feeling on this Sunday morning in the US west coast.


BTW, whammy, I have as much disdain as you do for those "average Singaporeans" who abuse their maids.

[Bubbles]

I agree with most of what's been said about perpetuation of abuse by the abused. I'd like to think I had a broad view of this, but as a mother myself I tend to veer to the 'chop his thingie off and let him rot'...what can you say? I want to be seen as understanding, yet all my instincts shout for him to be squashed. Slimy toad that he is.

Yet....he is not the only one at fault in the situation....there are those in this world who will sell their little ones for money. They do this in desperation (obviously) but is it not the world's fault for putting them in the situation where they need to consider such dreadful solutions to their economic problems?

Also, what about the 'sexualization' of youngsters? It may not be 'in your face' but fashion mags show pre-teens in totally inappropriate clothing....they sell books nowadays for pre and young teens which deal with sexual relations. Popular music and especially music videos use very young girls...or girls who maybe of age, but look much younger.

I'm not saying we agree with it, I don't, but you can't look anywhere these days without the images of very, very young women as sexual object.

For what he did he should have got life, or death perhaps, but I think that the acceptance of the despoiling of youth is so worldwide that crimes against the young do not shock us as they used to....because the media portray them as somehow 'knowing.'

And when they say 'abuse' do they not mean rape? Most probably. Even the word 'abuse' seems too soft and gentle for what young kids go through. Some of these 'abusers' truly believe that the kids like it, and are ready for that sort of relationship.

So, if you uphold the belief that abusers were abused then just think how mentally screwed up they must be to believe it.

[dot dot dot]

I remember someone specifically pointed out the SGean Chinese being nastier ones. He does have a point. Do not expect nice pleasantries and the Chinese to go all out to be friendly or sociable but if you live within their circle and interact with them at a deep level, you will see the their true nature. We are very reserve people, not so much a talk-it-out verbal cultures but more about action.

Please refrain from smooth characterisation of Chinese, there is no such 'true' nature. Not losing face is all that matters, nothing else. No integrity, not kindness, just not losing their faces, that's it, period.

Regarding Gary Glitter, I am all with Bafana on this.

Eric