Seaside town frets over the fallout from Glitter trial
Community's innocence lets predators roam undisturbed
Foreigners in the company of underage girls are a common sight in the Vietnamese town where faded rocker Gary Glitter is in custody on child-sex allegations, people there say.
Glitter is alleged to have spent the last eight months in Vung Tau, a seaside town about 75km from Ho Chi Minh City, bringing girls as young as 12 back to his rented waterfront villa.
Yet the allegations against the 61-year-old rocker, who has served jail time in Britain for possessing child pornography, only surfaced this month.
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, has denied the allegations.
'Foreigners going out with children is a common scene here,' said Hong Ha, a reporter with a Ho Chi Minh City newspaper who covered Glitter's case.
'People think it's because foreigners love children.'
A Vung Tau public information officer added: 'Such scenes do not attract much attention here.'
Le Hong Loan, head of Unicef's Vietnam's child protection unit, said Vietnamese generally have little grasp of the concept of child-sex tourism. She believes the crime is on the rise.
'It's quite a new phenomenon and in general the public is not quite aware of it,' Ms Loan said.
'Even the police do not have the experience or training in dealing with these cases, so the children are quite vulnerable.'
A Vung Tau people's committee member yesterday admitted confusion over the handling of the case.
'If we bring him to court, it will be very legally complicated, as it involves the detention of a foreigner in Vietnam. However, if we don't bring him to court, other countries will then not respect Vietnam in the field of fighting child sex abuse.' he said. 'We don't want the world to look at Vietnam as a new sex tourist destination.'
Vietnamese media have reported that Glitter arrived in Vung Tau, a town of about 200,000, in March.
Previously he is said to have been staying in Chau Doc, a town near the border with Cambodia. Glitter was deported from Cambodia in 2002 because of similar child-sex allegations, though he was never convicted of any crime.
Both Chau Doc and Vung Tau are not common stops on Vietnam's tourist circuit.
Nevertheless locals take little notice of foreigners in Vung Tau because there are large numbers working on oil-drilling rigs off the coast near the town.
Vietnamese newspapers have published a range of child-sex allegations against Glitter, including from alleged victims as young as 12 who claim he paid them from US$10 to US$20 for sex.
But lawyer Le Thanh Kinh, who is advising Glitter, said there is no evidence beyond hearsay.
'There is no medical evidence, and some of the alleged victims are homeless children who have no birth certificate. So it is debatable how old they really are.'
