Gary Glitter, the disgraced former pop singer whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, is reportedly on his "last legs" and so frail that he can barely walk around his prison cell. The 82-year-old is currently serving a 16-year sentence at HMP Channings Wood, a category C prison, for sexually abusing three schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980.
Prison emergency plan
It has now been revealed that Gadd is on a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP), which is used for inmates who are unable to use regular emergency exits unaided. A PEEP is implemented for prisoners with high-risk vulnerabilities, including a disability, sensory loss and mobility impairments.
"Peep's are created for our cons who are in the most ill health," a source told the Daily Star. "Basically if there was ever a fire or emergency evacuation officers would have to carry him out - that's how bad he is."
Health and hearing issues
The source added: "He can't hear either - and all officers have been made aware of that on an internal system." Gadd is also regarded as an Enhanced Level prisoner, meaning he gets more privileges, although it is believed he rarely leaves his cell.
Gadd was sentenced in 2015 but has spent time in several prisons since his first incarceration in 1999, when he was jailed for four months after pleading guilty to 54 offences of making indecent photographs of children under 16.
Recent court appearance
In August, Gadd appeared in court charged with sexual offences dating back to the 1970s. He was charged with unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13 and three counts of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 14 between 1978 and 1981. The former pop singer is accused of committing the crimes when the girl was aged eight to 11.
The offences are said to have taken place at Gadd's residential address in Kensington, west London. The court heard that he would give the girl chocolate and "invite her into his house where he then committed a number of serious sexual offences".
Appearing in court via videolink, Gadd told the judge he is "extremely deaf" after being asked to confirm his name. "Your honour, excuse me, I'm extremely deaf and unless I'm lip-reading I can't hear. My name is Paul Gadd," he said. He added: "Sorry, your honour, may I make a suggestion? If the barrister turns the volume down a little bit, it wouldn't be so distorting in my hearing aids."
