A woman sexually abused as a child by Gary Glitter feels his release halfway through a 16-year sentence is “not the justice she was promised,” her lawyer has said. The 79-year-old former pop star left HMP The Verne, a low-security category C jail in Dorset, on Friday after eight years behind bars for abusing three schoolgirls.
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was jailed in 2015 but freed automatically under fixed-term determinate sentence rules. He will be subject to licence conditions. Richard Scorer, a lawyer representing one victim, said Glitter “has never admitted his offences, has never apologised and has never shown any remorse”.
“I’ve spoken to my client today and like every victim of serious sexual assault facing early release of her abuser, today is an incredibly difficult day for her,” said Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon. “The abuse, including repeated rapes which our client suffered from the age of 12, have left her with a life sentence. Our client feels this was not the justice she was promised and the early release devalues her suffering and that of his other victims.”
Glitter was at the height of his fame when he attacked two girls aged 12 and 13 after inviting them backstage. A third victim was under 10 when he tried to rape her in 1975. The allegations emerged nearly 40 years later under Operation Yewtree. He had previously been convicted of child sex offences in Vietnam and admitted possessing 4,000 child abuse images in 1999.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Sex offenders like Paul Gadd are closely monitored by the police and Probation Service and face some of the strictest licence conditions, including being fitted with a GPS tag. If the offender breaches these conditions at any point, they can go back behind bars.” Labour MP Sarah Champion called for steps to prevent Glitter from travelling abroad, saying: “His licence conditions should be that he can’t hold a passport.”
