Disgraced pop star Gary Glitter is reportedly in declining health, barely able to move and spending up to 23 hours a day alone in his cell at HMP Channings Wood in Devon. The 81-year-old, whose real name is Paul Gadd, is said to be wheelchair-bound, almost totally deaf, and increasingly distressed amid mounting financial and legal troubles.
Glitter was jailed for 16 years in 2015 for sexually abusing three schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980. He was automatically released in February 2023 after serving half his sentence but was recalled six weeks later for allegedly breaching licence conditions by trying to access the dark web and viewing downloaded images of children at a bail hostel.
Sources told The Sun that fellow inmates believe he is unlikely to be released and will die in prison, with his sentence running until 2031. An insolvency hearing took place this month at Bristol County Court under his real name. In April 2025, he was made bankrupt after failing to pay over £508,000 in damages to a victim he raped when she was 12.
A source said: 'He is deaf and can barely move - and most people would struggle to recognise him now. If he doesn't get parole soon, most officers and inmates think he will see out his days in jail.' The Prison Service declined to comment on individual cases.
