Moment pop paedo Gary Glitter is secretly driven out of prison in darkness despite showing no remorse for sick crimes
DEFIANT pop paedophile Gary Glitter was freed from jail yesterday — despite refusing to engage with prison sex offender treatment programmes.
The serial child abuser, 78, was released under the cover of darkness at 1.25am.
He had served just half of his 16-year sentence.
Last night sources hit out after he was allowed out under automatic release rules.
One blasted: “By law, officials’ hands were completely tied.
“He had to be released at the halfway point of his sentence.
“But Glitter simply hasn’t engaged properly with the treatment he was offered inside.
“He attended the sessions but made it quite clear he wasn’t interested.
“It was like a naughty kid staring out of the window throughout class.
“If a dangerous sex offender refuses to engage, surely they’re just not fit for release?”
Glitter left HMP The Verne, a jail solely for male sex offenders in Portland, Dorset.
The cloak and dagger operation took weeks to plan — and saw him cowering in the back of a black saloon, flanked by four stony-faced cops.
Glitter was driven for several hours to a bail hostel at a top secret suburban location, which The Sun is not naming.
It sits a stone’s throw from a housing estate and playgrounds – with TEN schools close by.
He was settled in and fitted with a GPS tag, before being reminded of his strict licence conditions.
They include abiding by a nightly curfew, a ban on working without prior approval, no travel outside the UK and no contact with the media.
He is also barred from living with anyone under the age of 18 and cannot go near schools, playgrounds or swimming pools.
Last night one of his victims said of his release: “It’s hit me really hard, I can’t believe this is happening to me.
“I just can’t do this anymore.
“He should never been let out of prison for what he did.
“He’s just done eight years but I’m doing a life sentence.
“I can never forget what this monster did to me and I’m still struggling to deal with it.
“I really believe that he is still a danger to society.
‘Danger to society’
“Who knows what he could go on to do?”
Lawyer Richard Scorer, who represents one of Glitter’s victims, told The Sun: “If there’s one thing we know about serious sex offenders, it’s that they are overwhelmingly likely to try to offend again.
“It’s almost inconceivable that he won’t and his failure to engage with these programmes just reinforces that.
“My client will be incredibly concerned.
“Glitter will be subject to a number of licence conditions for a period of time.
“But the system is never fail-safe and once someone is out there’s always a risk.
“With someone like this there’s a significant risk — and that’s a very difficult thing for victims to be contemplating.
“This is a real source of concern.
“This needs to be looked at because there’s a real disconnect between the way the system operates and the way it looks to victims and the risk it involves.”
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, has been categorised as a “level 3” offender.
It means he is still seen as “dangerous” and “capable of causing serious harm” and will need senior probation staff to monitor him.
Any breach of his licence conditions would see Glitter facing an instant return to jail.
The fallen pop idol was caged for 16 years in 2015 for sex offences against three girls aged eight to 13.
Because he was sentenced to a fixed term inside, he did not have to go before the Parole Board.
Parole chiefs can block a prisoner’s release if they believe they still pose a risk to the public.
Glitter — was one of the UK’s biggest glam rock stars of the 1970s and a familiar face on BBC TV chart show Top of the Pops.
He had a string of hits including three UK No1 singles: I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am!), I Love You Love Me Love and Always Yours.
By 1975, he had sold 18million records but by the end of the decade he was declared bankrupt.
He made a comeback with his hit single Dance Me Up in 1984.
Glitter’s dramatic fall from grace began in 1997 when he took a laptop into a Bristol branch of PC World for repair.
An engineer found child abuse images on the hard drive.
Two years later the singer was jailed for four months after a total of 4,000 images were found by police in a subsequent investigation.
Glitter emigrated on release, before being kicked out of Cambodia in 2002 amid claims of sex crime allegations.
Four years later he was jailed in neighbouring Vietnam for molesting two girls, one aged just ten.
He escaped serious charges of child rape — which carried a death sentence — and returned to the UK in 2008.
Glitter was forced to sign the sex offenders register, but he was arrested once again in 2012 at his multi-million pound home in Westminster.
Cops would later describe him as a “habitual sexual predator who took advantage of the star status afforded to him”.
‘Habitual sexual predator’
And in 2015 he was convicted of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under 13 in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sentencing, Judge Alistair McCreath said he could find “no real evidence” that Glitter had atoned for his crimes.
The judge said: “It is difficult to overstate the depravity of this dreadful behaviour.”
He added: “You did all of them real and lasting damage and you did so for no other reason than to obtain sexual gratification for yourself of a wholly improper kind.”
In June 2021, The Sun first revealed Glitter had been given the green light for freedom.
One of his child victims in Vietnam — who he molested when she was just aged ten — told us at the time: “He will always be a terrible danger to young girls.
“It’s terrifying to think he might soon be free.
“I still have nightmares about what he did to me.”
Glitter no longer owns the master rights to his songs — meaning he no longer receives any royalties.
In 2019, his song Rock and Roll Part 2 featured in hit movie The Joker, but rights holders insisted he would not receive any royalties.
Last night a Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Sex offenders like Paul Gadd are closely monitored by the police and Probation Service and face some of the strictest licence conditions including being fitted with a GPS tag.
“If the offender breaches these conditions at any point, they can go back behind bars.
“We’ve already introduced tougher sentences for the worst offenders and ended the automatic halfway release for serious crimes.”
- Additional reporting: Eleanor Sharples
Rise & fall of pervert pop star
May 8, 1944: Born Paul Gadd in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Never knowing his father, he is brought up by his gran and young mother. At ten, he and his brother are taken into care.
1963: Marries Ann Murton. They have a son the following year and daughter in 1966.
1972: Breakthrough single Rock And Roll (Parts 1 and 2) reaches No 2 in the UK and No 7 in the US charts. He and his wife divorce.
1973: String of hits, including I Love You Love Me Love, Do You Wanna Touch Me and his first UK No 1 The Leader Of The Gang (I Am).
1984: Comeback after bankruptcy. His Another Rock And Roll Christmas single is No 7 in UK.
1997: Computer engineer finds thousands of child porn images on his laptop while servicing it.
1999: Jailed four months after admitting 54 offences of making indecent photos of kids.
2002: Kicked out of Cambodia after allegations of sex crimes.
2006: Convicted of sexually abusing two Vietnamese girls, ten and 11. Gets three years.
2012: Becomes first person arrested under the Met’s Operation Yewtree — the investigation launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
2015: Found guilty of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and of sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13. Jailed 16 years.
February 3, 2023: Released from jail after eight years.
