Gary Glitter recalled to prison after breaching licence conditions

The paedophile former pop star Gary Glitter has been recalled to prison after a breach of his licence conditions, the Probation Service has said.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was released in early February from HMP the Verne, a low-security, category C jail in Dorset, after serving eight years of a 16-year sentence for sexually abusing three schoolgirls.

Jailed in 2015, he was freed automatically halfway through a fixed-term sentence and was subject to licence conditions.

On Monday, the Probation Service said Glitter, 79, had been recalled owing to a breach of his licence conditions.

A spokesperson said: “Protecting the public is our number one priority. That’s why we set tough licence conditions and when offenders breach them, we don’t hesitate to return them to custody.”

His rerelease will be a matter for the Parole Board.

The move comes a few days after a photo emerged of the sex offender using a smartphone and reportedly asking how to access the “dark web”.

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 the first person to be arrested under Operation Yewtree, the investigation launched by the Metropolitan police after the Jimmy Savile scandal.

In 2002, he was expelled from Cambodia amid reports of sexual crime allegations, and in March 2006 he was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam, where he spent two and a half years in jail.

He had three UK No 1s as a performer, including I’m the Leader of the Gang. His breakthrough single, Rock And Roll (Parts 1 And 2), reached No 2 in the UK and No 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

By 1975 he had sold 18m records, but towards the end of the decade he was declared bankrupt, later making a comeback with the hit single Dance Me Up in 1984.

Snapper Music, an independent music company based in London, said it had owned the master rights since February 1997 and Glitter was not entitled to any royalties from the catalogue.