Gary Glitter jailed 16 years for child sex, rape attempt
Quote:
Former pop star Gary Glitter has been jailed for a total of 16 years for sexually abusing three young girls between 1975 and 1980.
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was sentenced for attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under 13.
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Judge McCreath said he assessed the seriousness of the offences by current guidelines, but he was limited to the maximum sentences that were available at the time the offences were committed, when "the sentencing climate was less severe".
"The offences for which I must pass sentence today took place many years ago at a time when in particular, in respect of one of them, the maximum sentence was considerably lower than that which is now available," he said.
Judge McCreath said the modern equivalent offence of unlawful intercourse with a child under 13 would be equivalent to rape of a child, but said he was not permitted to pass a life sentence.
He said the offence of attempted rape was "so serious" as to justify the maximum available sentence under the old regime of seven years, which he noted would be a lenient sentence under modern guidelines.
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Sallie Bennett-Jenkins QC, defending, told the court that Gadd had been subject to a "very high degree of vilification" and "demonification" in the press after being jailed in Vietnam in 2006 for molesting two girls aged 11 and 12.
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He had been at the height of his fame when he attacked two girls aged 12 and 13 after inviting them backstage to his dressing room.
His youngest victim had been less than 10 years old when he crept into her bed and tried to rape her in 1975.
The amount of hate that atrlers give out to singers they don't like for the most trivial of things, and Gary Glitter does truly appalling crimes against children and there is barely any condemnation on here. Figures.
