By Rob Cooper

Last updated at 5:30 PM on 25th November 2011


Convicted paedophile Gary Glitter is free to travel abroad again after a three-and-a-half year ban came to an end today.

Police have decided that he no longer represents a threat to children and did not apply to have the restrictions extended.

However, the former glam rock star still has to alert officers if he wants to go abroad for more than three days, Sky News reported.

Gary Glitter, left, on his return to Britain after serving a jail term in Vietnam. Right, the former glam rock star in his heyday

Despite having his travel restrictions lifted, he remains on the sex offenders' register for life.

The Metropolitan Police originally applied to Magistrates for the order when Glitter - real name Paul Gadd - returned to the country from Vietnam in 2008.

Scotland Yard could have tried to extend it but no application was made and the ban expired at midnight.

The orders can last for a maximum of five years.

COURTS CAN ORDER SEX OFFENDER TRAVEL BAN

Convicted Sex offenders can be given Foreign Travel Orders banning them from going abroad for up to five years.

The offender must have been jailed for more than 12 months before the court can make such an order. Glitter was jailed for three years in Vietnam.

The order will be made if the court is convinced it is necessary to protect children outside the UK.

Sex offenders have the right to appeal the order which is granted under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Glitter, 67, has been living in London and has donned a series of bizarre disguises to avoid being recognised.

A management team is still looking after his rehabilitation.

Glitter returned to Britain from Vietnam three years ago after serving a prison sentence for molesting two girls, aged 10 and 11.

He had denied the charge but was found guilty and jailed in 2006 for three years.

In 1999, he served half of a four month sentence in Britain for possessing 4,000 child pornography images.

The former star's music has largely been banned from the airways since his fall from grace.

He had several hit songs during the 1970s and continued to record into the 1980s and 1990s.

Earlier this year, Gwyneth Paltrow was criticised for performing one of Glitter's songs on US TV show Glee.

Children's charities condemned the notion that her rendition of Do You Wanna Touch Me would earn Glitter money in royalty payments.

The singer was forced to return to Britain three years ago from Vietnam after 19 other countries refused to let him in.

He travelled to Bangkok and Hong Kong as he tried to find somewhere that would accept him - but came back to the UK when his options ran out.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police refused to comment.

Here's what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

Come on,Come on, Come on Come on, Come on Come on, Come on,........... Gary we know you haven't changed and never will.

if he is still a danger put him back in prison.....

I knew him way back in 1965, I was 16, and he worked as Paul Gadd on Ready Steady Go! (which we used to go to when it was recorded) He used to swarm round all the young girls even back then.promising meetings with the stars appearing on the show etc. I also crossed his path here in Spain when he hid out in his boat in Sotogrande Port where I now lived.....still a creep, he will never change. He should be closely monitored.

Of course he's a threat - and always will be

The desire does not just disappear because they have been locked up for a while.

With a bit of luck no country will allow him in so it looks like its Blackpool for his hols, sorry Blackpool.

saw GG in a bar in Ha Noi, Vietnam in August... he's been finding ways to get back obviously! has a large group of expat associates too he drinks with there.

Good for him! He was convicted in a country where the judicial system is rather 'suspect'. He has not been convicted in this country, where I regard the system as flawed but more credible than those abroad. There is a lynch-mob mentality being instigated here.

Perverts like animals never change their spots. He should be put away where he cannot do any further harm.

People like Gary Glitter should be in jail for the rest of their lives. Child molestation is IMHO worse than either armed robbery or plain murder!

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.