Duane 'Dog' Chapman, best known for his show A&E reality series 'Dog the Bounty Hunter', has been denied a Visa to enter the UK, due to his criminal record in the US.
Chapman was hoping to participate in 'Celebrity Big Brother', as well as other gigs lined up by production company Endemol UK Ltd, who were willing to sponsor his trip "due to his public interest in his lifestyle and celebrity personality."
But his visa was denied due to a brush with the law in 1976, when he was 23.
Chapman was sentenced to five years in prison after his friend shot and killed a drug dealer in Texas, whom they were visiting to buy marijuana. At the time of the shooting, Chapman was waiting outside in a car but "in Texas in the '70s, if you were present, you were just as guilty," he explains.
The 59-year-old, who now lives in Honolulu, says: "It's something that follows you the rest of your life, no matter who you become or who you are. I'm not proud of it. I shouldn't have went and I shouldn't have been the person I was back then. It feels terrible. I'm dumbfounded. I can't believe it, after all these years, especially when we've been on television for the past nine years."
Former Police Officer Charles Love, as the responding officer at the time of the crime, issued a declaration stating that "Chapman's role in the crime was minor," and he was paroled after 18 months for good behavior.
Chapman is appealing the visa denial and hoping for a last-minute reversal but his wife feels insulted.
Calling the denial "insulting" in light of his charity work, Beth Chapman says: "For 30 years he's lived with the X on his back. Society just doesn't let it go."
'Dog the Bounty Hunter' was recently cancelled by A&E after eight seasons on the air.
Duane 'Dog' Chapman, best known for his show A&E reality series 'Dog the Bounty Hunter', has been denied a Visa to enter the UK, due to his criminal record in the US.
