Pop paedophile Gary Glitter is making a new bid for freedom despite flouting a court order demanding he pay compensation to one of his victims.
The disgraced 80-year-old was jailed in 2015 for the sexual abuse of three schoolgirls and was released automatically in 2023 after serving half of his 16-year sentence. Glitter was recalled to HMP The Verne, a specialist sex offender prison in Dorset, within weeks after breaking his licensing conditions by allegedly downloading images of children online.
He is now due to go before the Parole Board in the coming months when he could be cleared for release. The news that Glitter could be released from jail again will come as a blow to his victims. He is entitled to a parole hearing every two years until 2031 when he will have served his full sentence.
The Parole Board last year blocked his release after finding that Glitter had not engaged in sex offender courses in jail. It said in 2024: “The panel was not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public. His probation officer advised that Mr Gadd’s risks could not be safely managed in the community at this point. An in-depth assessment would be needed to ascertain suitable treatments which might reduce his risk in future.”
It comes as the former rocker was declared bankrupt last month after refusing to cough up £508,000 in damages awarded by the High Court last year to a woman he raped when she was 12. Her lawyers at Slater and Gordon have now successfully launched an enforcement action making him bankrupt. The case appeared under Glitter’s real name of Paul Gadd at Torquay and Newton Abbot county court in Devon.
A trustee can now take over his assets, including his £2million penthouse in London, and use them to pay the victim. A High Court judge ruled last year the woman was entitled to compensation to cover the time she has been unable to work and for the suffering Glitter caused. It is understood that at least two more victims have since come forward to sue the singer.
Documents filed at Companies House show a firm Glitter founded, now run by associates, has £137,873 in assets. It paid off the mortgage on his flat in Baker Street, Central London. He is also understood to still be raking in royalties while in jail. Glam rocker Glitter sold millions of records and is thought to still get royalties as a songwriter.
It would mean he is earning each time his tunes are played on radio and TV or at a sports event. By 2013, he had reportedly earned £1m from 1995 Oasis track Hello, which uses part of his hit song Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again. His other hits in the 1970s include I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am). He served two-and-a-half years in jail in Vietnam from 2006 for sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11.
Then at Southwark crown court in South London in the 2015 case, he was convicted of two indecent assaults and sex with a girl under 13 in relation to the woman who sued him.
Richard Scorer, at Slater and Gordon, said after the compensation ruling last year: “While no amount of money can make up for horrific sexual abuse, the award goes some way to recognising the devastation inflicted throughout her childhood and adult life. Gadd’s refusal to engage with the process proves his utter lack of remorse, something we will be reminding the Parole Board about if he makes another application for early release. We will be pursuing Gadd for payment.”
A spokesman for the Parole Board said on Tuesday: “We can confirm the parole review of Paul Gadd has been referred to the Parole Board by the Secretary of State for Justice and is following standard processes. Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.
“A panel will carefully examine a huge range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as explore the harm done and impact the crime has had on the victims.”
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