Glitter running out of options

6:22am Thursday 21st August 2008

Paedophile pop star Gary Glitter is facing a return to Thailand only hours after he fled the country for Hong Kong.

In a farcical merry-go-round, Glitter could be forced to get on a flight back to Bangkok without having set foot outside Hong Kong airport.

The 64-year-old was refused entry to the Chinese territory last night after flying there on Thai Airways service TF 602, the Foreign Office said.

Chinese authorities informed their UK counterparts that they had barred Glitter from the country after his arrival.

Sources say Chinese authorities now want to return Glitter, travelling under his real name, Paul Gadd, to Thailand.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "It is a matter for the Chinese authorities to decide what action they take now."

Immigration police at Hong Kong airport said privacy laws meant they could not comment on Glitter's case.

Glitter spent more than 20 hours in the transit lounge at Bangkok airport on Wednesday following his release from a Vietnamese prison on Tuesday.

He had served two years and nine months of a three-year sentence for abusing two girls aged 10 and 11.

Under the terms of his release he was due to board a connecting flight to London's Heathrow airport but refused claiming ill health.