A woman who was sexually abused as a child by Gary Glitter believes his release, midway through a 16-year sentence, is “not the justice she was promised,” her lawyer has said.
There was outcry on Friday as the 79-year-old left HMP The Verne, a low-security category C jail in Dorset, after eight years behind bars for sexually abusing three schoolgirls.
The sex offender, who had a string of chart hits in the 1970s, was jailed in 2015 but freed automatically halfway through a fixed-term determinate sentence. He will be subject to licence conditions.
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, “has never admitted his offences, has never apologised and has never shown any remorse”, said Richard Scorer, a lawyer representing one of the victims.
“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. The abuse, including repeated rapes which our client suffered from the age of 12, have left her with a life sentence,” said Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon solicitors.
“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 to his dressing room and isolating them from their mothers. His third victim was younger than 10 years old when he crept into her bed and tried to rape her in 1975.
The allegations only came to light nearly 40 years later when he became the first person to be arrested under Operation Yewtree, the investigation launched by the Metropolitan police after the Jimmy Savile scandal.
In 2002, he was expelled from Cambodia amid reports of sexual crime allegations, and in March 2006 he was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam, where he spent two and a half years in jail.
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.”
However, Labour MP Sarah Champion was among those on Friday calling for steps to be taken to prevent Glitter from travelling abroad. She said: “His licence conditions should be that he can’t hold a passport.”
It was clear that Glitter posed a significant risk to children abroad, according to Laura Durán, the head of policy, advocacy and research at the children’s rights organisation ECPAT UK.
“Even though he is part of the serious violence and sexual offences register, and will be under some supervision, it is unclear if the police have secured a sexual harm prevention order which would have travel restrictions.
“Statistics show that travel restrictions are secured in only a handful of sexual harm prevention orders. If there are questions over whether it is done in a case as high profile as this then the same applies the bigger bulk of cases.”
Sentencing Glitter in 2015, Judge Alistair McCreath said all the victims were “profoundly affected” by the abuse and that it was “difficult to overstate the gravity of this dreadful behaviour”.
“You did all of them real and lasting damage and you did so for no other reason than to obtain sexual gratification for yourself of a wholly improper kind,” he added.
The court heard there was no evidence Glitter had atoned for his actions after he was found guilty of one count of attempted rape, one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, and four counts of indecent assault. All six offences were committed in the 1970s and 80s.
Glitter’s fall from grace occurred years earlier after he admitted possessing 4,000 child abuse images and was jailed for four months in 1999.
Glitter had three UK No 1s as a performer, including I’m the Leader of the Gang. His breakthrough single, Rock And Roll (Parts 1 And 2), reached No 2 in the UK and No 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
By 1975 he had sold 18m records, but towards the end of the decade he was declared bankrupt, later making a comeback with the hit single Dance Me Up in 1984.
Snapper Music, an independent music company based in London, said it had owned the master rights since February 1997 but said Glitter was not entitled to any royalties or moneys from the catalogue.
