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Pop Star Pedophile Back in Britain

August 22, 2008 10:38 AM

By Stephen Webb, ABC News London

Convicted pedophile Gary Glitter is back in the U.K. after serving three years in a Vietnamese jail for abusing two girls, 10 and 11 years old. He had reportedly been avoiding a return to England for several days but ended up in airport lounge limbo, after being refused entry to Hong Kong and Thailand. Now back in the U.K., Glitter’s lawyer has called his conviction in Vietnam, “unsafe... a gross breach of human rights".

Glitter AKA Paul Gadd was avoiding a return to the U.K. after learning he would be ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register. The register keeps track of sex offenders, requiring them to report their movements to the police. The 64-year-old had previously been listed on it for seven years, after he was jailed in the U.K. for possessing child pornography.

Glitter’s lawyer was in court today to fight a police request for the pop star to be put on the Sex Offenders Register. According to the U.K.’s Sky News, whose reporter was in court earlier today, Glitter’s lawyer, David Corker, told the judge that the conviction in Vietnam was “a travesty of justice.” He requested that Glitter should only be added to the register for a short time, while he could prepare a case in his defense. However, the Judge ordered Glitter to sign as a sex offender within three days. The judge said he had demonstrated a “desire to avoid the jurisdiction of this court,” according to Sky News.

Gary Glitter was a popular glam rock star in the 1970s. He sold millions of records, with songs such as "I Love You Love Me Love."

Glitter was deported from Vietnam on Tuesday. According to the BBC, he was booked on a flight to London via Thailand but refused to board the connecting flight. He claimed to be suffering from a heart attack but doctors gave him a certificate stating he was safe to travel. Thai authorities refused to allow him into the country. He then flew to Hong Kong and was again turned away. About 19 other countries made it clear they would not allow the pedophile entry. Glitter then boarded a flight to London and was met by a floury of media attention, as well as police officers.

It is feared that Glitter may use his multi-million dollar wealth to move to another country.  However, the sex offenders register requires him to report any plans to leave the U.K.

The story has provoked calls for tighter controls on pedophiles, including international cooperation to bring back offenders who flee to other countries.

Earlier this week a global internet child porn ring was disrupted when their “librarian” was arrested in the U.K.. Click here for more on this story.

Photo Credit: Reuters

August 22, 2008 in Stephen Webb | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Crash Victims' Families Desperate for News of Their Loved Ones

August 21, 2008 2:37 PM

By SONIA GALLEGO, ABC News Madrid

Under a blazing hot sun, the gruesome task of identifying the bodies in  Wednesday’s horrific Spanair crash continued. The work has been painfully slow for the forensic scientists who have so far managed to work out the identities of 70 bodies.

One hundred and fifty-three  people perished in yesterday’s crash -- 22 of those were children. Most of the dead were families who were getting away for a summer vacation in the Canary Islands.

In the IFEMA convention center, located close to Madrid International airport, busloads of relatives made the heartbreaking journey to identify their loved ones.

Although the center was strictly off-limits to the press, one paramedic told us of scenes of utter emotional devastation -- people fainted, broke down in tears and others were filled with anger that such an injustice, or incompetence, was allowed to take place. The family members were brought in, wracked with nervous anticipation only to be led out in the depths of despair.

Today two  more bodies were uncovered at the site of the crash, that of a man and a baby, both so badly burned that they had difficulty in removing them from the plane’s fuselage.

After the heartbreak came the rage. As the relatives of those left behind were left to pick up the pieces, the inevitable why and how began to surface.

To date, there still has been no full explanation for the accident, and an independent commission has been set up to look in to the causes of the crash. U.S. experts from the company that manufactured the MD-82 aircrafts are also being flown in for this investigation.

According to a spokesman for Spanair, it was recognized that the plane had a problem before its fatal takeoff. The pilot, noticing the issue, taxied the plane back to the terminal where technicians took a look at it.

The air intake valve had apparently overheated and so the engineers had switched it off, which, the spokesman said, was "standard procedure." 

The plane then was given the OK to take off after a delay of more than an hour.

Spanair has been battling financial problems for the past year.

Around 1,000 people were to be "made redundant" this week, and 14 planes were to be taken out of commission. It has been reported that the MD-82 in yesterday’s crash was one of the planes that was to be taken out of service after having been in rotation for 15 years.

Other details that have arisen from local press reports (as of yet unconfirmed): The remains of the pilot show that he had broken both his arms, which might have indicated a desperate struggle as he tried to maintain control of the plane when it went out of control during takeoff.

Also the families of the deceased relayed their side of the story in the lead up to the crash.

There were text messages from those onboard complaining of the delay in takeoff. One man on the flight sent a text message to his son saying how he did not feel that he could trust the plane and that he had tried to get off.

He was not allowed to disembark. His remains were later uncovered in the smoky, charred plane.

We spoke to a paramedic, Eva Mitchell, who came from across the country in a taxi to help out, spending hundreds of dollars of her own money to get here.

After working in refugee camps and offering help and support to relatives and firefighters after 9/11, Mitchell has had more than enough experience working  in scenes of destruction. When I asked how she was coping, she replied, “I am used to it, but the burned babies will be in my dreams for a long time.”

August 21, 2008 in Sonia Gallego | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Message In a Bottle Found After 23 Years

August 21, 2008 2:08 PM

By MALAIKA BOVA, ABC News London

It was 1985 when Donald Wylie, then 11 years old, tossed a message in a bottle into the sea from a small island off the Scottish coast.

In 2008, 23 years later, a team of eco-volunteers cleaning up a beach near St. Andrews University in Scotland -- hundreds of miles away from where the bottle was dispatched -- found it and has launched a search to track down the boy.

They eventually found him. Donald lives on the same island, with the difference being that today he is a 33-year-old builder who takes his own children to the beach to toss bottles into the sea.

Wylie confirmed he was the boy who threw the bottle, and said he was surprised at how long the message had taken to resurface. It was not the first time he had received replies to his messages. People had written to him from Denmark and Norway, but never had a message taken this long to wash up.

After receiving the bottle from the hands of Mary Stevens, the cleanup volunteer who discovered it in the sand, Wylie recalled how he threw the message into the sea. It wasn’t the first time he had done it.

His mother had often encouraged him to throw bottles into the sea as a kid, and this time she had even written the message in her son’s name. She had also added on the note his sister’s year of birth, asking the finder to give the message to a boy of similar age.

Now the old message has been reunited with its sender.

August 21, 2008 in Malaika Bova | Permalink | User Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

'Librarian' for International Pedophile Ring Jailed

August 21, 2008 1:34 PM

By EMILY WITHER, ABC News London

It's been described as one of the largest ever police investigations into online child abuse in the United Kingdom.

And, earlier this week, a British man described as the "librarian" for a global Internet pedophile network was sent to jail for an indeterminate amount of time.

The child pornography Web site has subscribers in more than 30 countries, and police have identified 360 suspects worldwide. More than 130 of these suspects are in the United Kingdom, resulting in over 50 arrests to date. As a result of the investigation, 15 British children have been saved from abuse, police say.

News of the site surfaced this week when 27-year-old Philip Thompson was handed a prison sentence. He was caught with a collection of almost 250,000 indecent images of children, making it one of the largest seizures ever of this nature in Britain.

Detective Sergeant Becky Driscoll worked on the investigation. She told ABCNews.com that Thompson was critical to the running of the network, explaining "his job was as a moderator, to police the site, and he was trusted by other members, so much so that he stored horrific images of child abuse on their behalf."

The site operated as a forum where people who shared sexual fetishes for young children could meet. The invitation only web-site featured borderline images and users had to show their commitment before they were allowed access to more explicit photographs.

This was achieved by allowing members to post their own pictures, comment on photos and chat through instant messaging. It was then, in the more secretive online environments, that members swapped more horrific images and videos, including information about young people.

Jim Gamble, police chief executive for child abuse investigation and countering child abuse on the Internet, told ABCNews.com that the Web site was designed to be "below the radar" of authorities. "Whilst appearing to operate on the margins of legality, it was clearly a front for the sinister, sexual abuse of children and an image trading ground for pedophiles," Gamble said. 

Thompson used self-taught computer skills to operate the illicit archive via two computers set up in his mother's house in northeast England. He was described in court by his lawyer, Brian Russell, as fitting the stereotype "of a rather sad and lonely teenager who spends too much time in a darkened room in front of a computer screen." Russell went on to say, "he has not had much life experience to get himself mature."

Sergeant Driscoll explained that an offender like Thompson enjoyed the power the site gave him, saying "his persona at home was very different to his persona on the Web site. He was a quite a high-ranking individual within the site and had the power to grant people access, he liked the power within that because he would never have had that power in real life. A lot of people like Thompson lead a fantasy life on the Web."

A 35-year-old man has also been charged in Canada with links to the site and a further seven people have been arrested in the United States. International investigators are continuing to pursue the remaining Internet abusers.

August 21, 2008 in Emily Wither | Permalink | User Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

IOC President Tells Jamaican 'Showbolt' to Simmer Down, Carl Lewis Says He's Just Young

August 21, 2008 8:46 AM

By JO LING KENT, ABC News Beijing

In case you haven't heard, Usain Bolt is kind of a big deal – and the Olympic champ knows it. In the 100-meter and 200-meter races, Bolt not only won both golds but also set two world records in the process, becoming the first man in history to accomplish such a feat.

With a huge lead in the final 20 meters of Saturday's 100-meter final, Bolt slowed down, outstretched his arms, and fist-bumped his chest before crossing the finish line in a world record time of 9.69 seconds. The crowd, caught up in the heat of the moment, ate it up.

On Wednesday in the 200-meter final, Bolt thrilled the crowd again. He broke American Michael Johnson's 12-year-old record, wrapped himself in a Jamaican flag, and immediately began galloping around the track on his victory lap. Moving to reggae music, he peered into a television camera yelling, "I am No. 1!"

For his fans in the Bird's Nest and around the world, Bolt's celebrations were a welcome theatrical addition to one of the most popular events at the Olympics. But in the eyes of others, Bolt - or "Showbolt" as some fondly call him here in the ABC News' Beijing bureau - may have gone a little too far.

The criticism came straight from the top. Today, the president of the International Olympics Committee, Jacques Rogge, chided Bolt for showing what he thought was a lack of respect to other competitors after his record-breaking gold medal performances.

Of course, Rogge first hailed Bolt's impressive achievements in the two sprints and compared him to American track and field legend Jesse Owens.

"Bolt is in another dimension in sprints," Rogge said in a news conference. "Bolt must be considered now the same way like Jesse Owens should have been in the 1930s."

But as for Bolt's post-race celebration, Rogge said, "That's not the way we perceive being a champion."

"I have no problem with him doing a show," the IOC chief told the Associated Press. "I think he should show more respect for his competitors and shake hands, give a tap on the shoulder to the other ones immediately after the finish and not make gestures like the one he made in the 100 meters."

"I understand the joy," Rogge continued. "He might have interpreted that in another way, but the way it was perceived was 'catch me if you can.' You don't do that. But he'll learn. He's still a young man."

He is a young man indeed. Today is Bolt's 22nd birthday. He certainly has a lot to celebrate, but Rogge is hoping he'll simmer down.

"He still has to mature," Rogge said. "I would love him to show more respect for his competitors. That's not the way we perceive being a champion. But he will learn in time. He should shake hands with his competitors and not ignore them. He'll learn that sooner or later. But [he's] a great athlete, of course."

Bolt is the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win the 100-meter and 200-meter gold medals at a single Olympics. Jesse Owens did the same at the 1936 Berlin Games, snagging long jump and relay gold medals as well.

Lewis, who is in Beijing rooting for American athletes, told ABC News today, "I think everybody gets caught up in the heat of it sometimes, especially when you're young."

"You can't always talk down to [young people] so I think it was a good message saying, 'Hey, be mindful of that.'"

Whether or not Bolt will heed Rogge's advice is neither here nor there. After all, today's his birthday and he'll do what he wants.

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.

August 21, 2008 in Jo Ling Kent | Permalink | User Comments (95) | TrackBack (0)

Stroke Transforms Man Into Gifted Artist

August 20, 2008 12:06 PM

By Emily Wither, ABC News London

A disabled man living on state benefits in North West England experienced a stroke of luck after a cerebral hemorrhage rewired his brain, turning him into a gifted artist.

Ken Walters’s life had been in a downward spiral after a freak accident left him wheelchair bound, jobless and depressed. The bad luck continued with two heart attacks and finally a stroke at his home in 2005.

But Ken describes his stroke as “the biggest blessing in disguise he ever could have wished for” after he developed a passion for art, a talent he hadn’t previously processed.

After absently sketching to pass the boredom during his recovery, the former engineer was left baffled at his new talent.  Claiming he hated art in school, Walters declared, “I just had these urges to draw. It was bizarre because before the stroke I'd never been the arty type.”

Speaking to the British press from his home in Lancashire he told the Daily Mail newspaper that his doctor wasn’t surprised, "He told me, following a stroke, your brain usually rewires itself to avoid the damaged bits and often leads to discovering hidden talents."

Ken Walters is now a new man after completely transforming his life, turning his adversity into artistic endeavours. His rough sketches have got him noticed by computer giant Electronic Arts games (EA) who have asked him to design digital dinosaurs for a new educational game on evolution.

This new hobby has already banked him $60,000 which makes a nice change from the small weekly allowance he received from the state.

Ken is thrilled by his new good fortune, “Wherever this new love for art has come from it’s certainly changed my life for ever.”

Ken has also developed his own computer software and now hopes to become a household name around the world as a leading digital artist.

August 20, 2008 in Emily Wither | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

British Government Attacked Over Light Hearted Video

August 20, 2008 11:29 AM

By Stephen Webb, ABC News London

The British government has been accused of wasting time and money on a jokey video responding to a public petition made on its Web site.

A section of the British prime minister’s Web site allows members of the public to start “e-petitions” on any issue, from lower gas prices to indicting ex-PM Tony Blair for war crimes.

Nearly 50,000 people added their names in support of a petition to make Jeremy Clarkson, the presenter of a popular automobile TV show, the new prime minister of Great Britain.

The government responded with a light-hearted video which explains that the petition was turned down. You can watch a 48-second film below:

The Conservative Party, a member of the opposition, has accused the government of wasting public money and resources. A party spokesperson told the BBC:

“While the British public is having to tighten its belts, the government is spending taxpayers' money on a completely frivolous project."

A government spokesperson said that no money had been spent on the video.

“A member of staff put it together in a spare half-hour."

August 20, 2008 in Stephen Webb | Permalink | User Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

The Dangers Of Helping Foreign Journalists In China

August 20, 2008 9:19 AM

By Beth Loyd, ABC News, China

She wasn’t at home when the police came to her house.  But her husband and young son were there.  The police didn’t say why they had come but their visit was certainly meant as a warning to her. 

While foreign visitors are in Beijing for the Olympics marveling at this city’s sparkling venues and skyline, and millions of viewers worldwide are transfixed to their TV sets watching the best athletes in the world compete, there is a dark side to this place that only its own citizens experience. 

The woman I speak about has been our ABC News driver for more than a year. When we cover stories we tell her where to go and don’t always tell her what we are going to cover.  Not because it’s a secret. She doesn’t ask. 

During the Olympics, we went to cover a protest staged by Students for a Free Tibet. The protestors gathered at a park honoring ethnic minorities, nearby the National Stadium.  As soon as the banners were unfurled, security guards and police pounced.  They quickly removed the banner, and the protesters were deported the same day.  These police officers, some in plainclothes, took photos and video of the journalists there to cover the protest.  One British journalist was roughed up a bit and briefly detained because he was mistaken for a protester.  The police also wrote down license plate numbers. 

A day later, the police tracked the license plate to the car company that employs our driver. And the company gave the police her name. The company, we are told, has a policy against their drivers taking foreign journalists to cover any politically sensitive activities. The drivers are told they are to refuse to go there or must try to convince the journalists not to go.

Our driver called us and told us that the police had come to her house and that she was very scared.  She said police were always around her apartment building and the neighbors were talking about the police visiting her home.  She was afraid of being jailed or of losing her job and not being able to provide for her family.  Not because she broke the law, but because she was doing her job. 

It’s truly sad that Chinese citizens who work with foreign journalists put themselves at risk by doing so.  It is often the same in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Locals who work for foreigners are seen as targets for terrorists.  Here in China, they are the target of their own government, which has the power to take away their livelihoods. 

This experience changed our driver, who is a friend to all of us. She used to be happy and friendly and eager.  Now, she constantly looks over her shoulder.  And despite the fact that we told her we would not again ask her to drive us to any sensitive places, she is no longer comfortable doing her job. 

We went to cover a story about some Chinese cancer survivors meeting with a U.S. swimmer who has cancer.  We told her the topic. But she was still afraid. She drove 10 miles an hour on the highway, clearly distressed, despite our pleas that we would be late. Then she claimed that she was having car troubles, and we had to get out of the van with all of our gear and take taxis to the interview. She just couldn’t cope. 

We are using a different driver now while she takes a few days off to rest and get through her experience.  We know she will be fine, but it is hard to see her in distress. And it would only cause more problems for her for us to talk to her employer or go to the Foreign Ministry to ask the police to leave her alone.   

Foreign journalists working in China are accustomed to being looked at with a suspicious eye.  The government here expects us to do stories critical of China. Journalists themselves often experience harassment from police, but without real threat. It is our local staff that has legitimate concerns over helping us do our job. 

In China, freedom does not exist the way we know it in the West. One day, I will go back home to America. For the vast majority of 1.3 billion Chinese, that is not an option.

August 20, 2008 in Beth Loyd | Permalink | User Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Death of an African 'Champion of Democracy'

August 19, 2008 4:21 PM

Dana Hughes is an ABC News reporter covering Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya

In Africa, leaders who not only talk about democracy but actually adhere to its principles seem to be few and far between. One of those leaders, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, died today. President Bush expressed sadness at Mwanawasa’s death, calling him “a champion of democracy in his own country and throughout Africa.”

During the recent Zimbabwe election crisis, Mwanawasa was one the most outspoken and harshest critics of President Robert Mugabe and his regime. Serving as the chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), President Mwanawasa repeatedly called Mugabe’s behavior unacceptable, which is a big risk in Africa.

Leaders in Africa historically do not like to criticize other African leaders, especially those who are targeted by the West, for fear of being labeled “colonialists,” or worse, have fingers pointed at them over their own leadership failings. Mugabe knows this and often uses the argument of African solidarity, along with threats to expose other leaders, as a way of deflecting criticism against him. But Mwanawasa, elected democratically to two terms, refused to buy into that argument.

He was part of a new crop of African leaders, including Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Botswana’s President Festus Mogae, who stand up to oppression, regardless of the color of the oppressor. During Mwanawasa's terms in office, Zambia experienced unprecedented economic growth and political stability, and was considered one of Africa’s “success stories” by the West.

In Africa’s ongoing struggle against corruption, election fraud and poverty, for many Africans, including Kenyans, Mwanawasa's passing is seen as a huge loss, not just for Zambia but for the growing democracy movement on the continent.

August 19, 2008 in Dana Hughes | Permalink | User Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Gorilla Distraught Over Her Dead Baby

August 19, 2008 12:42 PM

By Christel Kucharz, ABC News Producer, Germany

11-year-old gorilla mother Gana has been distraught and grieving over the sudden death of her baby Claudio.



The 3-month-old gorilla baby died suddenly in his mothers arms last Saturday at the gorilla compound of the zoo in Muenster, Germany.

Visitors of the zoo witnessed a picture of pure grief as the mother gorilla stared at the corpse in shock and bewilderment over the sudden death, as if she could not believe what happened.

“She was holding her baby in her arms when it died,” zoo director Joerg Adler told reporters, “at first she was just holding her baby and then she started stroking the body to try and bring it back to life unable to accept that her baby is dead.”

“She gently placed him on her back and walked slowly around the compound, stopping every few paces to look if he had returned to life. It is heartbreaking,” he said.

“Some of the zoo visitors were so moved, they could not stop crying.”

Zoo veterinarian Dirk Wewers explained, “What we see here is a mother’s farewell to her dead child. This kind of behaviour is totally normal for all monkeys, not just gorillas. These animals have a very close attachment to their babies and they need time to cope with death. In the wild, it can sometimes take a week or two before the mother finally will let go.”

“This is perhaps one of the gifts a zoo can offer – to show that animals are very much like us when it comes to feel[ing] elation and pain. Gana’s loss is teaching our visitors so much.”

Officials say that Claudio’s body will be examined to establish what caused his death, but so far mother Gana is not letting anyone close to him.

She’s still carrying the lifeless body around, holding it tight to her and slowly walking around in her compound.

And though she appears a bit calmer today, zookeepers are still unable to get to the body of the gorilla baby, so fiercely is his mother guarding him.   

August 19, 2008 in Christel Kucharz | Permalink | User Comments (38) | TrackBack (0)