Good to be back?

[Touring Mars]

Gary Glitter, a convicted paedophile and former glam rock star in the UK, will return to the UK a free man tonight after serving a prison sentence in Vietnam for child molestation...

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Wo...in-From-Vietnam/Article/200808315081368?f=rss

The news has prompted concern from children's charities who fear Glitter will make foreign trips as a sex tourist.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Glitter will not be allowed to leave the UK after he returns to British soil.

Glitter will have to sign the sex offender's register, and his whereabouts whilst in the UK will have to be known to police - but since he is otherwise a free man, and technically still allowed to travel abroad, what can or should the UK government do to stop him from leaving the country?

Suffice it to say, if he does stay in the UK, he's going to get hounded mercilessly by the press anyway - so why would he stay? Would it be such a bad thing for the UK if he was permanently kicked out, rather than permanently kept in?! Or is neither feasible or even legal?

Either way, Glitter has shown little in the way of remorse or accepting responsibilty for his behaviour, so if he gets a hard time back in the UK, I can't see anyone losing much sleep over it...

 

[Duke]

Didn't he already do time for child pornography in the UK?

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Suffice it to say, if he does stay in the UK, he's going to get hounded mercilessly by the press anyway - so why would he stay? Would it be such a bad thing for the UK if he was permanently kicked out, rather than permanently kept in?! Or is neither feasible or even legal?

This is a big problem with our society. Whilst in the case of Glitter - who was convicted - ours is a media ruled by the power of hysteria. And unfortunately our laws are being altered to make them more, not less, powerful. Given that anyone who takes a photo of a child with an SLR is a paedophile anyway, where does the distinction between me - who likes to shoot his children playing in play parks - and Glitter start & end? I've got a perfectly good, and iron-strong grip on it myself, but I'm finding myself increasingly marginalised by a society who allows a small cadre of reactionary cretins to do their thinking for them.

We in the UK (and also the US, if what I've been reading about the TSA is true) are going to end up in a situation where literally everyone is treated as "suspicious" because of the thresholds of suspicion being lowered beyond all reason. Where then will we end up? And given that in the UK there is no right of redress for a false accusation, the s*** sticks.

And the whole thing stinks.

 

[Sureboss]

I think "free man" is a bit of an obsolete term in relation to a released paedophile from prison. If the police don't constantly track him, the press will. Not that I care about his freedoms whatsoever. His smugness in that Vietnamese court room showed what type of a character Glitter is. Mind you, people with serious psychological issues like him are beyond help. Afaik Paedophiles are the band of criminals who are most likely to re-offend when compared with other "bands".

 

[Touring Mars]

@ GG: I agree that the media and the public do not have the right to mete out their own version of justice, but at the same time I don't believe that means that people like Gary Glitter should be allowed to carry on as normal once they've been released from prison... atleast not until a full risk assessment has been done.. You are right about the media hysteria concerning the extent of paedophilia, which has done absolutely nothing to help deal with the real problem of how to handle actual paedophiles. But however much media (esp. the tabloid press) hype doesn't help, there is a real issue to be dealt with when a man who is a known risk and a remorseless child abuser is basically free to do whatever he wants...

And this news is hardly a shock... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7571429.stm

 

[Rue]

I hear he's come to Hong Kong. I once saw hime jogging through the village of Wedmore in Somerset wearing a silver shell suit, before the... errr... troubles started. Anyone with that kind of dress-sense needs counselling.

 

[Touring Mars]

It looks like he's been refused entry

Funnily enough, every country in the world has the right to refuse him entry, and the UK is the only country that cannot...

 

[daan]

No-one wants to be part of his gang...

 

[Mr P]

All paedophiles should serve there prison sentence caged up with a group of male silverback gorilla's and then the sick bastards can have a sense of what it is like to be tampered and toyed with against their will

That scumbag is too noticable and will hopefully get his when he starts roaming the streets at night and bumps into a group of chavs! .. they will have a chance to do something constructive for society for once 👍