Disgraced glam rocker only served eight years of a 16-year sentence stemming from conviction related to Jimmy Savile scandal
Disgraced Seventies glam rocker Gary Glitter has been released from a British prison just halfway through a 16-year sentence after being convicted of child sex abuse charges.
The BBC reports that Glitter will be “closely monitored” by police and probation officers via GPS and will face the “strictest” of conditions upon release. “If the offender breaches these conditions at any point, they can go back behind bars,” a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said.
The 78-year-old singer born Paul Gadd, whose biggest U.S. hit is the sports anthem “Rock and Roll (Part 2),” has spent the better part of the millennium behind bars, beginning in 1999 with a child pornography conviction.
Following his release from prison on those charges, Glitter moved to Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia — which expelled Glitter in 2002 due to suspected child sexual abuse charges — and Vietnam, where he was convicted of committing obscene acts with underage girls. While he avoided the death penalty by firing squad, Glitter was sentenced to three years in a Vietnamese prison, after which he was deported back to the U.K. (only after nearly 20 countries refused him entry).
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Upon his return to the U.K., Glitter was immediately and permanently placed on the country’s Sex Offenders Registry. However, in the aftermath of the pedophile scandal involving Top of the Pops host Jimmy Savile, Glitter was arrested and charged with child sex offenses stemming from multiple incidents that occurred between 1975 and 1980.
He was convicted of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault, and one of having sex with a girl under the age of 13 in 2015 and sentenced to 16 years in prison, but only served eight before his release Friday.
