Bounty hunter Chapman denied U.K. entry

Honolulu’s Duane “Dog” Chapman has his bags packed for London, but a murder conviction from the late 1970s is keeping him out of the United Kingdom.

The reality television star from the show “Dog the Bounty Hunter” was to appear on another reality show, “Celebrity Big Brother,” but he has been denied a visa.

“It’s something that follows you the rest of your life, no matter who you become or who you are,” Chapman, 59, said Monday. “I’m not proud of it.”

He was 23 in Pampa, Texas, in 1976 when he was in a car outside a house where a friend had gone inside to buy marijuana, he explained. The friend got into an argument with the dealer and shot him.

“In Texas in the ’70s, if you were pres­ent, you were just as guilty,” Chapman said. He and the others in the group were all found guilty of murder. Chapman was sentenced to five years in prison and was paroled after 18 months.

While he’s been denied a visa to visit the U.K. in the past, his temporary worker visa application notes he has traveled outside the United States. Chapman is appealing the visa denial and hoping for a last-minute decision, even though the show was to start this week.