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Glitter: The Popstar Paedophile review – Shocking TV clips that will make you wonder how he got away with it, writes ROLAND WHITE

Glitter: The Popstar Paedophile (ITV1)

Rating:

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s impossible to watch Gary Glitter and Jimmy Savile together on television without feeling a bit queasy.

‘Do young ladies go to great lengths to get next to you,’ asked Savile, in a clip shown on Glitter: The Popstar Paedophile.

Just the way Savile says ‘young ladies’ is enough to make your stomach turn. As it was at the time, to be honest.

‘Yeah, thank goodness,’ says Glitter. ‘I’m having a look round the audience now.’

‘We’ve got some bean bags for you,’ says Savile. ‘We always line our artists up.’ How did we not know? They were so obvious. Or perhaps we did know.

In 1992, Glitter was interviewed by Paula Yates on The Big Breakfast. ‘Who do you coach down to your house?’ asked Paula. 

‘I’ve got a couple of good friends who come down,’ said Glitter, looking uneasy and clearly wondering what was coming next.

‘Are they very young?’ said Paula with a winning smile.

We now know they could be very young indeed. Among other offences, the disgraced king of glam rock was convicted of attempting to rape an eight-year-old girl, who was staying overnight at his home.

If you weren’t there, it’s hard to understand the impact that Gary Glitter had on the 1970s with his high-energy music, silver platform boots and outrageous outfits (some of which looked like they were borrowed from a low-budget episode of Doctor Who).

As a music journalist put it: ‘He inspired you to think there was more to life than nine-to-five boredom.’

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was first exposed as a sex offender by the News Of The World in 1993. They reported that he’d sexually abused a 14-year-old girl, but seemed more interested in the fact that he was bald.

Yet a year later, Glitter was the subject of a lavish tribute on the BBC Children In Need programme. In 1997, his songs were sung by the Spice Girls. So much for Girl Power.

He was convicted of child porn offences in 1999, and after a short prison sentence, fled to Cambodia and Vietnam, where he began offending again. 

He is currently serving 16 years in the UK for abusing three schoolgirls. That conviction followed Operation Yewtree, which was of course prompted by the revelations about Jimmy Savile.

How did he get away with it for so long? Broadcaster Iain Lee, who was abused as a child, said: ‘It sometimes takes decades for people to come forward.’

What made this particularly difficult viewing was a thought lurking in the back of my mind. 

Could this still happen today? Are any of our much-loved household names taking advantage of their fame to cover up sexual abuse? 

Which of today’s big names might feature in similar documentaries in years to come? Unsettling

  • Christopher Stevens is away

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Roland White

Roland White

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Roland White

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