By Samantha Jones
The parole hearing for the notorious serial child sexual abuser, Gary Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, is set to be held in private. The decision aims to safeguard the identities of potential victims of his heinous crimes, who have the lifelong right to anonymity.
The application to conduct the hearing in public was firmly rejected by Caroline Corby, the chair of the Parole Board for England and Wales, on Monday.
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Glitter, the disgraced former singer, aged 79, has been incarcerated since 2015 for the sexual abuse of three girls during the years 1975 to 1980. He was released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February, having served half of his 16-year fixed-term determinate sentence.
However, in March, less than six weeks after his release, he was sent back to prison for violating his parole conditions by allegedly viewing downloaded images of children.
Caroline Corby’s decision to hold the parole hearing in private is rooted in concerns that making the proceedings public could inadvertently identify the victims of Glitter’s past offenses.
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Notably, the parole board could not establish contact with all of Glitter’s victims to determine their stance on a public hearing.
Corby stated, “The panel will need to consider the circumstances of the recall and whether the images that Mr. Gadd allegedly downloaded are indicative of a continuing sexual interest in children.
The children in these images are potentially victims, and any discussion in a public setting could have the potential to identify them.”
Moreover, she expressed worries about the revelation of sensitive operational information linked to Glitter’s recall to prison, which could occur during a public hearing.
While some have called for the parole hearing to be conducted openly, with lawyers representing one of his victims reportedly applying for such proceedings, the Parole Board has stated that it will explore options for victims to observe the private hearing.
Corby underlined, “It is unknown whether all victims of the index offences wish for the hearing to be held in public, and there is a risk that if this hearing were held in public, it could retraumatize them.”
Gary Glitter’s descent from fame to infamy began in the late 1990s when he was convicted for possessing thousands of child abuse images. Subsequently, in 2002, he was expelled from Cambodia amid reports of sex crime allegations, and in March 2006, he was found guilty of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam, leading to a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
The crimes for which Glitter was jailed in 2015 came to light as part of Operation Yewtree, a Metropolitan police investigation launched in the aftermath of the Jimmy Savile scandal, aimed at bringing perpetrators of historic child abuse to justice.
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