by Chris Hunter

Ann Widdecombe has revealed that
she did not know she would appear in a fictional drama in which
Gary Glitter was sentenced to death and hanged.

Channel 4’s The Execution of Gary Glitter confronted viewers with an imaginary Britain in which the 1970s glam rock star and convicted paedophile - whose real name is Paul Gadd - becomes the first person to be tried and executed under new “Capital Crimes Against Children” legislation.

The drama included an interview
with Maidstone and Weald MP Miss Widdecombe (Con), a former Home
Office minister, in which she defended the reintroduction of the
death penalty.

In the dramatised interview, she
says taking away the death penalty has led to “rampant
paedophilia”, more murders and “a society in which children kill
each other”.

Speaking to the Kent Messenger this
week, Miss Widdecombe said she recalled being interviewed for a
drama but did not know it was to be used in The Execution of Gary
Glitter.

“I didn’t even know I was in it,”
she said. “At the time I knew merely that they were putting on a
drama that suggested the home secretary had reinstated the death
penalty, and that at the end the home secretary would have
doubts.

“They said at a later stage they
might use it in relation to a specific case. They wanted to do the
interview and I agreed to do it.”

She added: “I don’t have anything
personal against Gary Glitter.”

Miss Widdecombe said she did not
believe the death penalty would ever be reintroduced but that there
was “a moral case for it”.

“There are interesting questions to
be asked” she added.

Asked whether she believed the
current legal system was not capable of dealing with evil, she
said: “I’m always amazed at what I’m supposed to have said. I
believe it (the death penalty) acts as a deterrent and the evidence
in this country shows it acts as a deterrent.”

“I don’t have any views on a
particular execution. I don’t have a view on whether he (Gary
Glitter) should have been executed.”