LONDON: Former pop artist Gary Glitter has been reportedly released from a UK prison after serving half of his term for sexual abuse.
According to Variety, a US-based media house, Glitter, 79, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2015 after being convicted of sexually abusing three underage females. The victims were aged 13, 12, and 10.
Variety cited a Press Association report according to which, Glitter was released from the Dorset jail on Friday morning but will still be subject to “licence conditions,” meaning he will serve the rest of his sentence in the community.
Glitter was initially detained as part of Operation Yewtree, a large-scale police investigation conducted by the Metropolitan Police to look into prior sex offences committed by celebrities in the aftermath of the Jimmy Savile affair. Savile was a well-known radio DJ and TV personality who was revealed to be a serial sexual offender after his death in 2011.
Glitter rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as a glam rock artist with hits including ‘Do You Wanna Touch Me’ and ‘I Love You Love Me Love.’ His career effectively ended in 1999, when he was sentenced to four months in prison for collecting 4,000 photos of child sexual assault after pleading guilty.
According to Variety, the punishment came just hours after he was found not guilty in a separate trial of sexually assaulting an underage girl.
He was convicted of sexually abusing two minor girls in Vietnam in 2006 and sentenced to three years in prison, of which he served two and a half. (ANI)