02 January 2024 , 11:50
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Garry Glitter could be allowed to walk free from prison as soon as next month following a parole meeting.
The disgraced former pop singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was automatically released from HMP The Verne in February last year after serving half of his 16-year fixed-term determinate sentence for sexually abusing three schoolgirls.
But less than six weeks after walking free, he was hauled back behind bars for breaching his licence conditions by allegedly viewing downloaded images of children. He is due to be considered for release during the parole hearing on January 24 after he was jailed in 2015 for sexually abusing three girls between 1975 and 1980.
Caroline Corby, the chair of the Parole Board of England and Wales has confirmed that the 79-year-old hearing will be held behind closed doors. And with parole board decisions usually taking around two weeks, it means that Glitter could be free as early as next month.
The decision to give Glitter a parole hearing was blasted by solicitor Richard Scorer who represents one of his victims. He told The Sun: "My client wants him locked up for as long as possible and I hope the Parole Board will take a common sense view, put public safety first and ensure he stays behind bars. Anything else would be madness.”
Gary Glitter freed after serving half his jail sentence for sex abuse of 3 girls
The singer was found guilty of one count of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13. 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 less than 10 years old when he crept into her bed and tried to rape her in 1975.
He was not added to the sex offenders register for these crimes because they were committed before the register was introduced. But he was already ordered to sign the register for life when he returned to the UK after he was found guilty of sexually abusing two young girls in Vietnam in 2006.
Glitter had three UK number ones but his fall from grace began decades later in 1999 after he admitted possessing thousands of images that showed child sex abuse and was jailed for four months. Upon being freed he went abroad and in 2002 was expelled from Cambodia amid sex crime allegations.
He was later convicted of sexually abusing two young girls in neighbouring Vietnam in March 2006 and spent two-and-a-half years in jail. He returned to the UK in 2008 and then was arrested in 2012 following an investigation by detectives, before the case that led to his latest conviction came to trial in January 2015.