Glitter: The Pedophile Pop Star (ITV1)
In retrospect, it’s impossible to watch Gary Glitter and Jimmy Savile together on TV without feeling a little giddy.
“Do young ladies go out of their way to be by your side?” asked Savile, in a clip shown on Glitter: The pedophile pop star.
The way Savile says “ladies” is enough to turn your stomach. As it was at the time, to be honest.
“Yes, thank God,” Glitter says. “Now I’m taking a look at the public.”
“We have some beanbags for you,” says Savile. “We always line up our artists.” How did we not know? They were so obvious. Or maybe we did know.
Gary Glitter at his home in 1972. The convicted child sex abuser is the subject of new ITV1 documentary Glitter: The Popstar Pedophile
The documentary examines how Glitter was able to abuse children for so long without being detected
Glitter was known for his eccentric outfits and high-energy music, before the glam rock icon was unmasked as a serial sex offender.
Gary Glitter is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence in the UK for abusing three schoolgirls, having lost an application for release from the Parole Board earlier this year.
In 1992, Paula Yates interviewed Glitter on The Big Breakfast. —Who do you take home to train? Paula asked.
“I have a couple of good friends coming over,” Glitter said, looking uneasy and clearly wondering what would come next.
‘They are very young?’ Paula said with a winning smile.
We now know that they could be very young. Among other crimes, the disgraced king of glam rock was convicted of attempting to rape an eight-year-old girl who was spending the night at her house.
If you weren’t there, it’s hard to understand the impact Gary Glitter had in the 1970s with his energetic music, silver platform boots and outrageous outfits (some of which looked like they were borrowed from a low-budget episode of Doctor Who ).
As one music journalist put it: “It inspired you to think there was more to life than nine-to-five boredom.”
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was first exposed as a sex offender by News Of The World in 1993. They reported that he had sexually abused a 14-year-old girl, but seemed more interested in the fact that he was bald.
However, a year later, Glitter was the subject of a lavish tribute on the BBC’s Children In Need. In 1997, his songs were sung by the Spice Girls. So much for feminine power.
He was convicted of child pornography offenses in 1999 and, after a short prison sentence, fled to Cambodia and Vietnam, where he began offending again.
He is currently serving a 16-year sentence in the UK for abusing three schoolgirls. That conviction followed Operation Yewtree, which was of course motivated by the revelations about Jimmy Savile.
How could he get away with it for so long? Broadcaster Iain Lee, who suffered abuse as a child, said: “Sometimes it takes decades for people to come forward.”
What made this visualization particularly difficult was a thought lurking in the back of my mind.
Could this still happen today? Are any of our most beloved names taking advantage of their fame to cover up sexual abuse?
Which of today’s big names could appear in similar documentaries in the coming years? disturbing…
- Christopher Stevens is absent