Paedophile Gary Glitter denied parole after bid for freedom
Paedophile pop star Gary Glitter has lost a Parole Board bid to be freed from jail and will stay locked up.
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was jailed for 16 years in 2015 for sexually abusing three schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980. His sentence expires in February 2031. The decision to keep him in jail comes after a parole hearing took place in secret last month to consider the 79-year-old’s case.
He was automatically released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February last year after serving half of his fixed-term determinate sentence. Glitter was put back behind bars less than six weeks after walking free for breaching his licence conditions by allegedly viewing downloaded images of children.
In a decision published today, the Parole Board said: “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.
“Rather, the panel considered that Mr Gadd was appropriately located in custody where outstanding levels of risk could be addressed.”
Gary Glitter freed after serving half his jail sentence for sex abuse of 3 girls
Paul Gadd in 1990 (Mirrorpix)
Paedophile Gary Glitter in 2015 (PA)Parole judges review the cases of criminals who are recalled to prison to decide whether they should be re-released or stay behind bars for the rest of their sentence. The hearing took place behind close doors after a request for proceedings to be heard in public was rejected on the grounds it was too difficult to contact all his victims.
Lawyer Richard Scorer, who represents one of Gadd’s victims, said: “This is the right decision and in our view the only decision that the parole board could have made. Everything we know about Gadd/Glitter indicates that he remains a risk to children and has never shown any remorse.
“Releasing him would have been utterly wrong and we are glad the parole board has done the right thing. We only hope that Glitter will now serve this full sentence – it is completely unfair that our client has to endure this Glitter parole circus over and over again.”
Glitter was jailed in the late 1990s 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.
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