Paedophile pop star Gary Glitter ‘should not be freed from prison’, parole board rules
Disgraced paedophile pop star Gary Glitter has lost a Parole Board bid to be freed from jail.
The decision comes after a parole hearing took place behind closed doors last month to consider the 79-year-old’s case.
“After considering the circumstances of his offending, the lack of progress made while in custody and on licence, and the other evidence presented at the hearing, the panel was not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public,” the board said in a ruling published on Wednesday.
“Rather, the panel considered that Mr Gadd was appropriately located in custody where outstanding levels of risk could be addressed.”
Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, was jailed for 16 years in 2015 for sexually abusing three schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980. His sentence expires in February 2031.
He was automatically released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February last year after serving half of his 16-year fixed-term determinate sentence.
He was put back behind bars less than six weeks after walking free for breaching his licence conditions by allegedly viewing downloaded images of children.
The summary of the panel’s decision said: “It found on the evidence that at the time of the offending, and while he was on licence, Mr Gadd had a sexual interest in underage girls. There was also concern about the lack of victim empathy which he had continued to show.”
While his behaviour in prison had been generally good, he had not taken part in any programmes to address his offending because he continues to deny having a sexual interest in children.
Glitter’s fall from grace began in the late 1990s when he was jailed for possessing thousands of child abuse images. In 2002 he was expelled from Cambodia amid reports of sex crime allegations and in March 2006 he was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam, and spent two-and-a-half years in jail.
The offences for which he was jailed in 2015 came to light as part of Operation Yewtree, the Metropolitan Police investigation launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Earlier this year, Glitter was accused of showing a “total lack of remorse” towards his victims by lawyers representing a woman he abused when she was 12 years old and who is now suing him.
Glitter is from Banbury, Oxfordshire and shot to fame when he was 28 years old as a glam rock singer.
His songs included I’m The Leader Of The Gang (I Am), I Love You Love Me Love and Always Yours - and by 1975 he had sold 18 million records.
However, Glitter no longer owns the rights to his songs and no longer receives royalties for them.
