Britain’s Gary Glitter has reportedly been charged with historical sexual offenses, including one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13.
On Thursday, BBC News said ex-singer Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, has also been charged with three counts of indecent assault regarding a girl under the age of 14. The offenses are said to have taken place between 1978 and 1981 in Kensington, London.
The former musician, now 82, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Aug. 5. The allegations were reported to the Metropolitan Police in January of last year, after which an investigation was launched. Gadd was reportedly interviewed about the claims in July 2025.
Gadd had performed under the name of Paul Raven until the 1960s, when he changed his name to Gary Glitter and soared to fame with singles such as “Do You Wanna Touch Me,” “I Love You Love Me Love” and “Rock and Roll.” He sold over 20 million records and spent a total of 180 weeks in the U.K. Singles Chart, soon becoming a household name in Britain. His 1984 Christmas song, “Another Rock and Roll Christmas,” further catapulted Gadd to stardom.
But a dramatic fall from grace came in 1997 when Gadd was convicted and jailed for downloading thousands of child pornography images and videos. This would be the start of decades of disrepute for the singer, and he later faced criminal charges — as well as deportation from several countries — over suspected child sexual abuse. He was deported from Cambodia on alleged child sex abuse charges in 2002, settling in Vietnam. There, a court found him guilty of obscene acts with minors in 2006.
After he was deported to the U.K. and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register, Gadd was again arrested in 2012 as part of Operation Yewtree, a major Met Police investigation into child sex abuse by media personalities, sparked by the revelations from the Jimmy Savile scandal.
In 2015, he was found guilty of one count of attempted rape, one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, and four counts of indecent assault. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison and released on license in February 2023, but was recalled in March 2023 after breaching the conditions of his license. His parole bid was denied in 2025.
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