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Glitter's world tour reveals difficulties facing global fight against child abuse
No one quite knew what was going to happen when he was finally released this week from a Vietnam prison having served 33 months of a three-year sentence for the abuse of two young girls, aged just 10 and 11, but it quickly became clear he had not lost his taste for the spotlight.
IT didn't seem possible Gary Glitter could sink any lower.
After his first conviction for downloading pornography in UK, the singer has cut an increasingly bizarre figure flitting between boltholes in Spain, Cuba and Cambodia, his reputation in tatters.
Yesterday, after his demands to be flown to Singapore were turned down and complaints of fatigue were met with a less-than-sympathetic public response, Glitter left on a flight to Hong Kong.
The 64-year-old, who apparently still earns tens of thousands of pounds in overseas royalties, has declared himself a free man determined to enjoy his new-found liberty.
With embassy officials apparently powerless to force him onto a UK-bound plane, and with the British police officer charged with the unenviable task of being his chaperone reduced to a helpless bystander, Glitter's future was yesterday still uncertain.
As the furore continued thousands of miles away, with Glitter reportedly laughing and joking with those attempting to persuade him to change his mind, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was busy unveiling
plans to further curtail the travel plans of convicted sex offenders.
The irony was not lost on those whose job it is to pick up the pieces of child abuse. What hope does the Government have of preventing offenders disappearing abroad when they can't even get one of the most high-profile abusers of recent years back into the country?
The Home Secretary prefaced the announcement by stating that the UK's present system for dealing with sex offenders is more robust than in many other countries, but the finer details of just how the new regulations would work appeared scant.
Under current legislation offenders can already be prevented from travelling abroad, but with the Foreign Travel Orders lasting just six months and renewable only when new evidence of risk is presented, very few have been issued.
Ms Smith admitted there was a problem and, while removing the need for new evidence, hasn't yet decided whether the orders will be extended to one year or possibly even five. No firm decision has yet been made on whether the age limit of youngsters deemed at risk should be increased from 16 to 18 years old.
Finally, while insisting that should Glitter ever arrive back on British soil it was unlikely he would be allowed to travel again, Ms Smith added that it wouldn't be possible to apply a blanket travel ban on every sex offender.
It's the kind of loophole which many believe is asking to be exploited.
"Sex tourists move around the world, targeting countries like Cambodia and Vietnam which they know have weak or non-existent child protection systems," says Dr Zoe Hilton, policy adviser for the NSPCC.
"Once they're overseas, we know that some of the most high-risk offenders just go from country to country, setting up hubs for other offenders.
"Glitter's return raises important questions about how UK sex offenders are assessed and managed in relation to the risk they pose to children abroad. If they do manage to travel overseas, there should be
a better tracking system that prevents them country-hopping until the authorities lose track of them."
According to a report issued earlier this week by child protection charity Ecpat, Britain has prosecuted only five sex offenders for abuse abroad since 1997, and between 2004 and 2007 just five Foreign Travel Orders have been issued.
The children's rights charity cites the case of a 77-year-old man who was recently arrested in Thailand accused of abusing an eight-year-old boy. While he has denied the charges, it is the sixth time he has been arrested since 1997, and despite a previous case in which he paid 800 to a Thai couple for their 12-year-old daughter, no action has been taken by the authorities in this country.
"In Thailand, like elsewhere in Asia, the elderly are highly respected, and men use this to get access to children," says Christine Beddoe, director of Ecpat.
"For the last 20 years, British authorities have spent vast resources on training foreign police forces in combating child sex abuse, but it has ignored the landscape of international sex offending where poverty and corruption, are not simply diminished by the participation of hand-picked individuals attending training workshops.
"The media only ever cover the most sensational or celebrity- driven cases and there is a general malaise about the many British offenders who have been charged with sexual offences in schools and orphanages around the world.
"There is the perception among the public that if someone commits an offence abroad they are automatically put on the UK Sex Offenders Register, which is not the case."
While the new regulations should in theory make it easier for the Government to confine sex offenders and thereby limit the chances of them committing further crimes, they are not only battling with the opportunities provided by the internet, but with a network of abusers who know that if they are careful they are unlikely to get caught.
"Sadly, with cheaper travel and new technologies, British offenders continue to target the world's most vulnerable children and their abusive acts are often captured on digital technology and transmitted around the world," adds Christine.
"Most offenders will use their relative wealth and their ability to travel to avoid detection and they will go to places where they think they will not get caught.
"These are often locations where there are low levels of education, poverty, ignorance, corruption, apathy, lack of law enforcement or government policy, and often where there are high levels of adult prostitution. Definitely sex offenders exploit difficult situations.
"These new measures are significant, but history has shown that having the law is one thing and using it is another."
The organisation now wants the Government to back a national public awareness campaign.
"There's nothing at airports telling travellers how to report seeing anything suspicious or who to report it to," says Christine.
"We would like to see high-profile, well-trusted British travel companies more publicly denouncing child sex tourism as well as Government backing for a free international telephone hotline so people
can report suspicious behaviour. Until that happens, we will
be failing the world's most vulnerable children."
Until the new legislation is shown to work in practice, the jury will remain out, and with Glitter rumoured to be considering publishing his memoirs about his time in jail, this sorriest of sagas looks set to continue.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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