Disgraced British pop star and convicted pedophile Gary Glitter was released from prison Friday after serving just half of his 16-year sentence.
Glitter, born Paul Francis Gadd, was set free from Dorset’s HMP The Verne prison in England, PA News reports.
The “Do You Wanna Touch Me” singer was caged in 2015 after he sexually abused three young girls, all under the age of 13, at the height of his fame in the 1970s.
The 79-year-old’s third victim was under the age of 10. He snuck into her bed and tried to rape her back in 1975.
Glitter reached global stardom in the 1970s and 80s — but his success was short-lived after he was caught downloading 4,000 child pornography images in 1999, landing him in jail for just 4 months.
His string of pedophilic crimes continued into the early 2000s when he was expelled from Cambodia amid reports of sex crime allegations.
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He was convicted of having sex with a minor in Vietnam in 2006. He was freed after serving 3 years in jail there and was ordered to register as a sex offender upon return to home soil.
In a bid to carry out his heinous crimes, Glitter separated the young girls from their parents by inviting them backstage at his gigs.
He then took advantage of them in his dressing room.
“It is difficult to overstate the depravity of this dreadful behavior,” Judge Alistair McCreath said at his sentencing, adding that he wished he could put Glitter behind bars for longer, but was constrained by sentencing restrictions for crimes committed in the 1970s.
Now out of prison, Glitter will be subject to license conditions which means he will have to follow a strict set of rules to serve in the community.
The singer’s 1972 hit “Rock and Roll Part 2” was featured in the 2019 movie “Joker.”
