Disgraced former pop star Gary Glitter has been recalled to prison after breaching his licence conditions, the Probation Service has said.
The singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was freed in February after serving half his 16-year jail term for sexually abusing three schoolgirls. His recall comes just over a month since being freed.
Upon release, he was subject to licence conditions including having a GPS tag. The pop star, 79, was one of the biggest music stars of the 1970s. He lived near Wedmore for several years and also ran a Burnham-On-Sea seafront bar.
He was jailed in 2015 for attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under 13.
A Probation Service spokesperson said protecting the public was their “number one priority”, adding: “That’s why we set tough licence conditions and when offenders breach them, we don’t hesitate to return them to custody.”
Glitter had been held at HMP The Verne, a low security category C jail in Portland, Dorset.
When he was released he was also subject to close monitoring by the police and probation officers, with the Ministry of Justice saying at the time sex offenders “face some of the strictest licence conditions”.
Gadd was not added to the sex offenders’ register for these crimes, because they were committed before the registry was introduced. However, he was already ordered to sign the register for life when he returned to the UK after he was found guilty of sexually abusing two young girls in Vietnam in 2006.
Gadd had been at the height of his fame when he attacked two girls aged 12 and 13 after inviting them backstage to his dressing room.
His youngest victim had been less than 10 years old when he crept into her bed and tried to rape her in 1975.
Gadd had denied allegations against him but was found guilty after a trial lasting three weeks.
In 2015 at the time of sentencing, Judge Alistair McCreath said he could find “no real evidence that” Gadd had atoned for his crimes and described his abuse of a girl under 10 as “appalling”.
The allegations that led to Gadd’s imprisonment came to light when he became the first person to be arrested under Operation Yewtree – the investigation launched by the Met in 2012 in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Gadd, who performed as Gary Glitter, had three UK number ones including I’m the Leader of the Gang (I am!).
His fall from grace began decades later in 1999 after he admitted possessing thousands of images that showed child sex abuse and was jailed for four months.
Upon being freed he went abroad and in 2002 was expelled from Cambodia amid sex crime allegations.
He was later convicted of sexually abusing two young girls in neighbouring Vietnam in March 2006 and spent two-and-a-half years in jail.
On returning to the UK in 2008, he was forced to sign the sex offenders’ register. In 2012, he was arrested at his London home following an investigation by detectives, before the case that led to his latest conviction came to trial in January 2015.
Pictured: Disgraced pop star Gary Glitter (Photo Andy Thornley from London)Â
