VICTIMS of depraved musician Gary Glitter have described suffering “nightmares all of the time” decades on from their attacks.
Chilling new details have emerged in the ITV documentary Glitter: The Popstar Paedophile, which airs tonight – including how the monster “bribed” hotel staff to turn a blind eye overseas.
Disgraced musician Gary Glitter rose to fame in the Seventies and EightiesRex
PAThe paedophile, real name Paul Gadd, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2015 for sexually abusing three schoolgirls[/caption]
Glitter, now 79, was imprisoned in Vietnam back in 2006 before being deported back to the UKRex
The crimes of Glitter, 79, whose real name is Paul Gadd, first came to light in 1999 when he was imprisoned in Britain for downloading thousands of child sex abuse images.
In 2006, he was found guilty of obscene acts with minors in Vietnam, just four years after being deported from Cambodia over suspected child sexual abuse.
Glitter, who was then deported to the UK, was the first person to be arrested as part of Operation Yewtree – an investigation into the sexual abuse of children in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
He was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment in 2015 for attempted rape, unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 and four counts of indecent assault.
In the new documentary, criminal barrister John Price KC – who represented three of Glitter’s victims – speaks about the damning effect it had on their lives, including a woman who was eight when the predator tried to rape her in 1975.
He told the show: “She was a friend of the family, there was an occasion when he had a dinner party downstairs and it was after the dinner party was over.
“He came upstairs to where she was sleeping and came into her room, she could remember the repellent smell of alcohol and cigarettes on his breath.”
Recalling that night, the victim said in a recording: “By now, he turned to me and at first I thought he was cuddling me and lying up against me.
“It didn’t feel comfortable, I didn’t know him well enough for him to be doing that.
“So I lay there really still and he was too close and then I felt him lifting up my nighty and then I felt it.”
Lawyer Ricard Scorer recalled being told by one of Glitter’s survivors that she would never get over her ordeal.
“She said to me, ‘I will never get any peace… It haunts me constantly’ and she gets nightmares all of the time,” he told the documentary.
The anonymous woman said she was “repeatedly raped” by Glitter. Mr Scorer described it as “one of the most shocking cases I’ve dealt with”.
“The manner in which he did all of that was particularly depraved and revolting,” he added.
EnterpriseGlitter appeared on TV shows including Tiswas, Top of the Pops and Jim’ll Fix It[/caption]
ITVGlitter’s victims have said they will have found ‘no peace’ since his harrowing attacks[/caption]
‘Bribed into silence’
Prior to his horrific crimes coming to light, Glitter was one of the nation’s biggest glam rock stars and rose to fame during the Seventies and Eighties.
The singer sold 20 million records, had 26 hit singles, of which three were UK No1s, and was a regular fixture on shows including Top of the Pops, Tiswas and The Saturday Scene.
In 1997, Glitter was outed as a paedophile when an IT technician discovered thousands of child abuse images on his laptop’s hard drive after taking it in for repair in Bristol.
Two years later, he was sentenced to four months in prison and put on the sex offenders register.
Glitter became a “public hate figure” and left the UK, first settling in Andalusia, Spain, where he used the pseudonym Larry Brilliante, before moving to Havana, in Cuba.
I did even say something to the management and they would say, ‘It’s fine, he’s well behaved, he tips well. He’s great with us’ – so nothing was really said.
Nick Ysenberg
Photographer Nick Ysenberg told the documentary about witnessing the disgraced pop star kissing children by a hotel swimming pool and “disappearing” with them.
He described being “really suspicious” after seeing Glitter with “three very young girls, probably between the ages of eight, 12 or 13” and the following day photographed him.
Nick recalled: “I decided that I would record this because it was getting sort of uncomfortable. He kept asking them to put their arms around him. It didn’t look right at all.”
During that encounter, Nick recalled Glitter stripping off his purple velvet jumpsuit to “tiny black briefs” and sitting beside the pool.
“[It was] just strange, a man of this age with these three children and all this kissing,” he said.
Glitter hosted parties at his luxury home in Vung Tao, Vietnam, before his arrestRex
News Group Newspapers LtdGlitter outside Bristol Crown Court in 1999[/caption]
“Then he would disappear and one of them would disappear. It was uncomfortable.”
Nick complained to hotel staff after spotting several “uncomfortable” interactions between the star and minors, fearing “something pretty dark was going on”, but no action was taken.
“I did even say something to the management and they would say, ‘It’s fine, he’s well behaved, he tips well. He’s great with us’ – so nothing was really said,” he recalled.
‘Paedophile haven’
Between 2002 and 2005, Glitter regularly travelled between Cambodia and Vietnam where he faced more allegations of abuse against children.
AFP journalist Luke Hunt told the documentary: “Cambodia was attracting a lot of these dubious characters… a haven for paedophiles.
He came to Cambodia to buy children, to have sex, like the rest of these ugly men that we see in these bars.
Mu Sochua
“It was easy to get a visa and there were no shortages of kids without families, who were hungry. For some types of people, this was an attraction.
“When it comes to child sex offenders Gary Gitter was just another one of them and he wasn’t trying to use his celebrity, he was doing his best to hide.”
Mu Sochua, the former Women’s Minster in Cambodia, led a campaign to deport Glitter, fearing he would carry out depraved attacks.
Gary Glitter prison mug shot, Vietnam, May 2007. Picture Simon Parry/Red Door News
She described being “enraged” after discovering the musician had been allowed to live in the country despite his previous conviction, claiming he must have felt like “the King of Cambodia”.
Ms Sochua added: “He came to Cambodia to buy children, to have sex, like the rest of these ugly men that we see in these bars.”
In late 2002, Glitter was held in jail for four days amid reports of sex crime allegations and was expelled from the country the following year.
After briefly staying in Thailand, he moved to Vietnam where he would be sentenced to three years imprisonment in 2006 for sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11.
Andrew Drummond, a Southeast Asia correspondent, was among the journalists watching his every move ahead of his arrest.
©Julia QuenzlerGlitter was charged with 10 historic sex offences against young girls in 2015[/caption]
The Sun reported that Glitter had asked about using the dark web after being released on licence last year
He recalled: “[One day] Glitter came out with what seemed to be a young girl, I would have said 15, 16, I don’t think it was an unfair assumption that something was up.”
After serving two-and-a-half years in prison in Vietnam, Glitter was deported to the UK in 2008 where he would finally be brought to justice seven years later.
Sickening stash
Some of those who spoke out in the documentary said Glitter was “hiding in plain sight” and had manipulated others to gain access to children.
Criminal barrister John Price described how, before his convictions, two mothers had been convinced to allow their children to spend time with Glitter alone.
He said: “If they’d been asked in similar circumstances to leave their daughter with a stranger they would have refused, they thought they knew him but of course, they didn’t it was an illusion.”
Others to speak out included Garry Johnson, a music journalist who admitted thinking Glitter was “a weirdo” but had no idea about his perverse interests until years later.
When he picked [the Polaroids] up, he looked at them and they were pictures of underage children.
He became aware while interviewing a music venue security guard, who claimed to have discovered a sick stash of child abuse images belonging to the singer in 1990.
The worker was asked to carry several boxes to the star’s dressing room, only for several Polaroid pictures to fall out of one of them.
Garry recalled: “He said he didn’t think anything of it straight away but then, when he picked them up, he looked at them and they were pictures of underage children.
“He was automatically disgusted and had words with Glitter. Glitter immediately shed tears. ‘I’ll pay you money, I’ll pay you your fee’ [but] they didn’t want his fee.
“He said, ‘No we’re not doing anything for you’. He didn’t do his gig, he set fire to his wig and left.”
ITVCriminal barrister John Price said one victim still had nightmares to this day[/caption]
Glitter, who was sentenced to 16 years in 2015, was released on licence last year from HMP The Verne, in Dorset.
But just over one month later, he was called back to prison for reportedly viewing downloaded images of children and accessing the dark web on his mobile phone.
The musician appealed for parole in February but was denied and was said to show a “lack of victim empathy” by the Parole Board panel.
“It found on the evidence that at the time of the offending, and while he was on licence, Mr Gadd had a sexual interest in underage girls,” they noted in a summary.
The panel noted Glitter continued to deny having sexual interest in children and had not taken part in prison programmes to address his offending.
Glitter: The Popstar Paedophile airs tonight on ITV
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