Ex-rocker Glitter pleads innocence at Vietnam appeal

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, June 15 (Reuters) Disgraced former British singer Gary Glitter, jailed in Vietnam for sexually molesting children, declared ''I'm innocent'' when he arrived in court today to appeal the charges and sentence.

The hearing in the People's Supreme Court of communist-run Vietnam was closed to the public and media but the court will open when the decision is announced later in the day.

Glitter, 62, has been imprisoned in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau since last November after his arrest at Ho Chi Minh City airport.

In March, a court found Glitter guilty of committing sexual acts with two 11-year-old girls in the resort town of Vung Tau and sentenced him to three years imprisonment to be followed by deportation.

As the handcuffed Glitter, dressed in a black cap, black shirt and black pants, was led out of a padlocked green police vehicle into the court, he told reporters he was confident about the appeal.

''I'm innocent,'' said Glitter, who rose to fame in the 1970s with a bouffant hairstyle and several pop hits, including ''Rock and Roll'' and ''I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)''.

Now with little hair and sporting a white goatee beard, Glitter, a stage name, was already registered as a sex offender in Britain after a 1999 child pornography conviction. He has been charged under his real name, Paul Francis Gadd.

Asked where he would want to go if he was deported, Glitter told reporters at the court, ''Have a beer''.

REUTERS DH RAI0731