Gary Glitter - Unremorseful Paedophile - Returns to a world that no longer wants him

Glitter, like many child sexual abusers, has failed to demonstrate remorse for the sexual offences he has been convicted of, and as such he remains at a "high risk" of reoffending. The implication is that if he is not sorry for what he has done, he is more likely to do it again. This is why there is a need for systems and laws that can monitor the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders and restrict their access to children.

What we thought we knew hid a monster within.
He is every parent's worst nightmare:
a strange and odd man
who has victimised children around the world.
But we didn't know then, and couldn't tell.
And it is this that makes us feel vulnerable.

The former star has three days to give police a permanent address - but they are believed to be aware of his current whereabouts.

Neither Glitter nor his solicitor would say where the 64-year-old convicted paedophile plans to live now he is reluctantly back in the UK.

He arrived home yesterday after a four-day tour of Asia, apparently trying to avoid returning to Britain.

Glitter had just been released from a Vietnamese prison after serving two years and nine months of a three year sentence for sex crimes involving two girls aged 10 and 11

He flew to Bangkok where he was due to board a flight to London, but he refused, saying he felt ill.

However, the Thai authorities would not allow him through passport control and he was eventually forced to fly on to Hong Kong.

Chinese authorities also refused him entry and he flew back to Bangkok, where Thai police and immigration officials insisted he return to Britain.

He arrived at Heathrow's Terminal 3, where he remained while his solicitor David Corker went to court on his behalf.

Mr Corker appeared at Uxbridge Magistrates Court, west London, where he was told that Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, had three days in which to sign the sex offenders register.

Scotland Yard had successfully applied for an order requiring Gadd to register as a sex offender - although he has 21 days to appeal.

Once on the register, Glitter must inform police if he plans to travel abroad for more than three days - and breaching the rules can result in a prison sentence of up to five years.

That he generates such strong emotions is both a function of his familiarity to us and, paradoxically, his distance from us. As suggested, his familiarity reminds the public that abusers are often popular, trusted and liked: indistinguishable from other ordinary men (and women) in our lives. This is terrifying, and this is why the public prefers to think that abusers are extraordinary – like a glam rocker: flamboyant, excessive, bizarre and uncommon. But being bizarre did not lead to Glitter's downfall (his collection of child porn was uncovered by chance by a computer repair man at PC World) and child sexual abuse is far from uncommon.

He was over the top, but not scary, not threatening. He'd been around for so long that we thought we knew him, we thought we were in on the joke. People had taken his songs into their homes and Gary Glitter into their hearts. So, when his crimes became public knowledge, his betrayal felt personal. His excess, once endearing, was now sinister. What we thought we knew hid a monster within. He is every parent's worst nightmare: a strange and odd man who has victimised children around the world. But we didn't know then, and couldn't tell. And it is this that makes us feel vulnerable.

He is the bogeyman for our times because child sexual abuse is one of the public's biggest fears. As the visible face of a largely hidden population, Glitter represents a target for all the anger and hurt that he and other (hidden) child sexual abusers invoke.