Gary Glitter released from prison after serving half of his sentence
Former musician Gary Glitter has been freed from prison after serving half of his 16-year sentence for sexually abusing three schoolgirls.
The ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll (Part 1)’ singer was jailed back in 2015. However, it has been revealed that he has controversially been released before his sentence was up.
Over the years, the Banbury-born musician has been convicted on multiple occasions. In 1999, he was sentenced for downloading child pornography. He was then convicted once again in 2006 for child sex abuse. This made the 2015 conviction his third for similar offences in a short span of time.
However, the offences stretch back even further. In the late 1970s, he was accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl. While this was never legally proven, the accusation kickstarted a wave of controversy that followed Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, around the globe as he fled from his damaged reputation ostensibly in search of anonymity.
During his time in Vietnam, he was also charged with child rape – a crime for which he could have faced execution by firing squad. He ended up serving three years in prison, the payment of five million Vietnamese dong and a mandatory deportation after being found guilty of committing obscene acts with two girls, aged 10 and 11.
In a BBC interview upon his return to the UK, Glitter denied being a paedophile and claimed that he has never knowingly had sex with anyone under the age of 18. Around this time, he also told The Daily Telegraph: “After jail, I will continue to rock ‘n’ roll.”
However, he was arrested once again in 2015 and served three years in HM Prison Albany before being transferred to the lower-security facility of HM Prison The Verne. He has now been released after eight years and will now be subject to licence conditions.
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