Disgraced rock star Gary Glitter has been banned by a court from leaving the UK to take a holiday in Europe.

The convicted child molester, whose real name is Paul Gadd, wanted permission to travel to the south of France tomorrow.

But Metropolitan Police detectives were granted a six-month foreign travel ban after he notified them of his plans.

Speaking at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court yesterday, District Judge Timothy Workman said the 65-year-old former glam rocker could pose a risk to children overseas.

He referred to a report prepared by a psychologist who spoke to Glitter as he spent nearly three years in a Vietnamese prison for molesting two girls aged 10 and 11.

The judge said: "I am satisfied from Dr Sullivan's evidence that the risk of sexual offences against children would increase if he was permitted to travel overseas.

"While his desire to leave the UK may have reduced in the last month, he has on numerous occasions in the last year made it clear it is his intention to leave the UK permanently.

"If he were to do so, not having had any treatment, there would be a substantial risk he would avoid sexual monitoring regimes and could move easily and without detection around the European Union."

Glitter was convicted at Bristol Crown Court in 1999 of downloading child pornography after staff repairing his computer at the Cribbs Causeway branch of PC World found a number of images of child sex abuse on his laptop.

The star, who had been living in Wedmore, near Cheddar, at the time of the offences, served two months of a four-month sentence at Bristol Prison before leaving the country.

He moved to Spain and then Cuba before travelling to south-east Asia, where he was kicked out of Cambodia after facing allegations of sex crimes and moved to Vietnam, where he was jailed for paedophile offences.

Glitter was deported from Vietnam last year and after being refused entry to a number of other Asian countries decided to return to Britain, where he was registered as a sex offender.

He was believed to have moved to Kent but his present whereabouts are unknown.

The judge said police held no information that the holiday was being undertaken with any intention to target children. But he said Glitter had refused to take part in any treatment programme since returning to Britain.

Gadd was not in court. Solicitor David Corker said his client had no further comment.