Disgraced popstar Gary Glitter reportedly left HMP The Verne – a low security category C jail in Portland, Dorset – on Friday after eight years behind bars. He will now be subject to licence conditions.
Gary Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, became one of the most recognisable musicians of the 1970s and he had sold more than 18million records by 1975.
He became known for his outlandish attire from sparkling silver jumpsuits, open-fronted jacket with oversized collars, matching silver trousers, big hair and platform heels.
He had a succession of hits and remained a popular figure well into the 1990s until charges against him relating to child sex abuse destroyed his reputation.
The performer quickly fell from grace and was convicted and jailed in 2015 for the historic sex attacks.
READ MORE: Gary Glitter freed from jail after serving half of his sentence
It was during the glam era when he rose to fame and decided to change his moniker to Gary Glitter – with the name being chosen after he worked through the alphabet looking for an alternative name.
His first single under the Glitter name, Rock’n’Roll (parts one and two), hit number two in the UK charts in 1972 and topped the US charts, selling over a million copies domestically alone.
The following year he saw further success with two number ones, including I’m The Leader of The Gang (I Am), which became his anthem.
More hits for the performer continued until his buzz fizzled out along with the glam era.
By now Gary has sold 18 million records, but towards the end of the decade, he was declared bankrupt.
In 1984 he makes a comeback with the hit single Dance Me Up.
He turned to Buddhism, and became a vegetarian.
In the early 1980s, he began touring student venues and these morphed into the huge Christmas Gang Shows that were watched by hundreds of thousands every year. It was said he made £1m annually from the festive tours alone.
Gary’s public image came crashing down when he was jailed for four months, serving half the sentence, in 1999, after admitting to possessing a collection of 4,000 hardcore photographs of children being abused.
After serving two months in prison, the singer is freed and travels to Spain and then Cuba, where he had a son, Gary Jr, on the Caribbean island, before moving to south-east Asia.
Gary was kicked out of Cambodia after facing allegations of sex crimes and moved to Thailand, before moving to Vietnam.
The shamed singer was convicted of child sex offences where he had always maintained he was innocent of the offences.
He returned to the UK after spending two-and-a-half years in jail.
Gary became the first person to be arrested under the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Yewtree – the investigation launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
The singer was charged with eight counts of sexual offences, which later becomes 10 counts.
In 2015 he is found guilty of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and a count of sex offences with a minor – and is jailed for 16 years.
The 78-year-old was released from HMP The Verne in Portland, Dorset, after eight years behind bars.
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