Gary Glitter’s early prison release ‘not the justice’ victims were promised, lawyer says
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 lowsecurity 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