Bangkok - Thailand on Wednesday barred former British glam rock star Gary Glitter from entering the country but allowed the convicted paedophile to fly to Hong Kong, airline sources confirmed. Glitter, who was put on board a Thai International Airways flight Tuesday after being released following two years and nine months in a Vietnamese prison for sexually abusing two preteens, deplaned at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, where he refused to board his flight to London, claiming to be suffering chest pains.
A checkup found Glitter fit to travel, but he had already missed his scheduled flight to London.
Glitter was denied entry to Thailand as an "undesirable," but allowed to wait in transit until Thai immigration authorities decided to deport him.
"We don't want someone with a bad record staying in our country," said Lieutenant Colonel Phakapon Saiubon, deputy superintendent of Suvaranabhumi airport's immigration police, transit division.
"We are ready to deport him," Phakapon told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.
But instead of being deported to London, Glitter was apparently permitted to fly to Hong Kong, one of the destinations he had originally chosen.
"We arranged for him to fly to Hong Kong," said a Thai Airways International (THAI) official, who asked to remain anonymous.
Glitter, 64, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was expected to be met by police in Britain to be entered into the national registry of sex offenders.
"He doesn't want to go back to England, because he thinks that when people see him, he will look like a broken man," said Le Thanh Kinh, Glitter's Vietnamese lawyer, speaking to
