British glam rocker Gary Glitter, best-known for the anthemic “Rock & Roll, Part 2” song played at sports arenas worldwide, said he pleaded innocent Thursday to charges of molesting two young Vietnamese girls at his house last year.
Glitter, 61, is accused of committing obscene acts, including kissing and fondling, with an 11-year-old girl and a 10-year-old girl at his rented house in the southern port city of Vung Tau. He entered the courtroom flashing a “V” for victory sign and saying he was innocent.
Glitter, who won fame in the 1970s with such hits as “Do You Wanna Touch Me,” faces three to seven years in prison if convicted.
The singer, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, wore sunglasses and black pants, shirt and cap as police escorted him through reporters into the yellow concrete courthouse in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.
The trial is closed to the public, but a verdict is expected to be read publicly Friday.
Dozens of curious onlookers crowded outside the gates of the courthouse as the armored police carrying Glitter van drove up. Glitter had been held at Phuoc Co prison outside Vung Tau since November.
Glitter was escorted out of the court for a lunch break after 3½ hours of testimony. Reporters outside asked him if the girls were lying and if he pleaded innocent, and he nodded yes in response to both.
When testimony ended for the day, Glitter was led out of the courtroom, smiling but refusing to comment.
Defense attorney Le Thanh Kinh said prosecutors presented their case and recommended that Glitter be sentenced to three to four years in prison before being deported.
Prosecutors say they have evidence that Glitter molested the two girls multiple times at his seaside villa, which he moved into last spring.
However, Kinh said his client has maintained his innocence.
“He doesn’t agree with the accusations,” Kinh said. “He said he’s innocent. He said nothing happened.”
Glitter has said he was teaching the girls English at his home and considered them “like his grandchildren.”
He has been in police custody since Nov. 19, when he was seized in Ho Chi Minh City trying to board a flight out of the country. Police confiscated his laptop, which had hundreds of pornographic pictures on it.
During the criminal investigation, police considered charging Glitter with child rape, which carries a maximum penalty of death, but said they did not find enough evidence.
The girls’ families wrote to the court in December, asking that charges be dropped after Glitter paid $2,000 to each of them.
Although prosecutors decided to move forward with the case anyway, under Vietnam’s legal system, the payments are considered “compensation” that counts toward lessening any sentence.
The sleepy resort town of Vung Tau, about 80 miles southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, has drawn intense attention from international media.
Glitter’s fall from grace began with a 1999 conviction in Britain for possessing child pornography. He served two months in jail.
He later went to Cambodia but was expelled in 2002. Officials did not specify why Glitter was deported.