Briton Gary Glitter has reportedly been charged with historical sex crimes, including one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13.
BBC News said on Thursday that the former Glitter singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, is also charged with three counts of indecent assault on a girl under 14. The crimes are said to have occurred between 1978 and 1981 in Kensington, London.
The former musician, now 82, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on August 5. The allegations were reported to the Metropolitan Police in January last year, after which an investigation began. Gad was reportedly interviewed about the allegations in July 2025.
Gad performed under the name Paul Raven until the 1960s, when he changed his name to Gary Glitter and rose to fame with singles such as “Do You Wanna Touch Me,” “I Love You Love Me Love,” and “Rock and Roll.” He has sold over 20 million records and spent a total of 180 weeks in the UK Singles Chart, quickly becoming a household name in Britain. His 1984 Christmas song, “Another Rock ‘n’ Roll Christmas,” propelled Gadd to stardom.
But the dramatic fall from grace came in 1997 when Gad was convicted and jailed for downloading thousands of child pornographic images and videos. This would be the beginning of decades of discredit for the singer, and he would later face criminal charges — as well as deportation from several countries — over suspected child sexual abuse. He was deported from Cambodia on child sexual assault charges in 2002, and settled in Vietnam. There, the court convicted him of committing indecent acts with minors in 2006.
After being extradited to the UK and placed on the sex offenders’ register, Gadd was arrested again in 2012 as part of Operation Yewtree, a major investigation by the Metropolitan Police into the sexual abuse of children by media figures, sparked by revelations of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
In 2015, he was convicted of one count of attempted rape, one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, and four counts of indecent assault. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison and released on license in February 2023, but was recalled in March 2023 after breaching the conditions of his licence. His request for parole in 2025 was denied.
