Gary Glitter Claims He Slept With 11-year-old Because She Was "Afraid of Ghosts"

by Josh Grossberg
Dec 12, 2005, 2:25 PM PT



Gary Glitter is pulling out the ghostbuster card.

The "Do You Wanna Touch" singer, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, has confessed to Vietnamese authorities that he let an 11-year-old girl sleep in his bed. Ah, but there's a twist: According to his lawyer, Glitter claims that he shared his bed with the girl not so he could molest her, but because she was afraid of ghosts.






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The 61-year-old glam rocker was detained Nov. 19 as he tried to board a plane in Ho Chi Minh City for Bangkok. He remains jailed while police probe allegations he committed "lewd acts" on several minors, including an 11-year-old and 12-year-old, in violation of the country's age of consent laws. He has not been formally charged, however.

According to published reports, Glitter, a convicted sex offender, offered up the spooky tale during police questioning.

"[Glitter] answered that when this girl [and her aunt] came to his house, he put them in the guest room. But in the middle of the night, they said they were very afraid of ghosts and they cannot sleep. So they came to his room and slept there," Glitter's Vietnam-based attorney, Le Thankh Kinh, told the Associated Press.

Kinh, who sat in on the interrogation, noted that this wasn't the only time they wanted to snuggle up to the one-time hitmaker, famed for the sports-friendly anthem "Rock and Roll Part II."

At another time, when Glitter had told them emphatically that they could not enter his bed, "the girls explained to him that in Vietnamese families, the father, the mother and the children sleep in one bed," the attorney said.

Glitter also admitted to being with several other girls, but denied touching them inappropriately.

"He said he think they are like his grandchildren," Kinh added.

In any case, it looks like "Grandpa" Glitter has a lot more explaining to do. Previously he told officials he was merely tutoring the youth with their English.

Investigators working the case have reportedly spoken six females, ranging in age from 11 to 23, who claim they were intimate with the crooner.

Because officials consider Glitter a flight risk, it's possible he could remain behind bars for at least another month before his request for bail is granted. The entertainer however has been permitted to leave his cell to visit with British consular officials, though it's not known what was discussed.

The penalty for sexual relations with a minor in Vietnam varies, but having sex with a child under 13 is considered rape, for which the maximum punishment is death by firing squad.

In 1999, Glitter served two months in prison and placed on a child sex offender list in his native England after pleading guilty to 54 counts of possessing kiddie porn. Following his release, he turned up in Cuba, then Cambodia before child-welfare activists persuaded the country to expel him.