A family were horrified to learn freed paedophile Gary Glitter had been moved in next door – forcing them to have a serious discussion with their young children about the dangers of speaking with strangers.
The shamed pop star, 78, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was released from prison last week – eight years after he was jailed over child sex offences committed against three schoolgirls.
He was moved into a bail hostel in the south of England surrounded by 10 schools – where sources at the facility said he was receiving VIP treatment and kept away from other residents.
Father Jonathan Wilson told DorsetLive the community were all feeling ‘pretty emotional’ when they learned Glitter had been moved in.
‘This is enemy number one, and they’ve released them into the community,’ he said. ‘Our children play in the woods which back onto their property, and we had to tell our kids like, don’t talk to them, don’t go near anyone there.’
Mr Wilson’s children are aged three, four and seven.
A family were horrified to learn freed paedophile Gary Glitter had been moved in next door
Glitter was jailed in 2015 for child sex abuse dating back to the 1970s
‘You’d think these people would be moved in the middle of a field, not where kids are.’
After word spread of Glitter’s location online, vigilantes arrived within hours, shouting to passing motorists outside the hostel: ‘Watch out, Glitter’s in there!’
One man shook the security gates and tried to scale the fence before four police cars arrived and spoke to the two men and a woman.
After being spoken to by officers, one of the protesters told MailOnline: ‘People aren’t happy that they’ve put a nonce like Glitter here – there are loads of schools around here.’
Glitter has been categorised as a ‘level 3’ offender.
It means he is still seen as ‘dangerous’ and ‘capable of causing serious harm’ and will need senior probation staff to monitor him.
The hostel is in an undisclosed location in the south of England
Police were stationed outside of the bail hostel after vigilantes arrived
Vigilantes living near a bail hostel which is now housing notorious pop paedophile Gary Glitter have had a heated exchange with police this afternoon after attempting to storm the facility
Any breach of his licence conditions would see Glitter facing an instant return to jail.
The shamed pop idol was caged for 16 years in 2015 for sex offences against three girls aged eight to 13.
Because he was sentenced to a fixed term, he did not have to go before the Parole Board.
Parole chiefs can block a prisoner’s release if they believe they still pose a risk to the public.
Glitter — was one of the UK’s biggest glam rock stars of the 1970s and a familiar face of BBC’s TV chart show Top of the Pops. He had a string of hits including three UK No1 singles: I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am!), I Love You Love Me Love and Always Yours.
By 1975, he had sold 18million records but by the end of the decade he was declared bankrupt.
He made a comeback with his hit single Dance Me Up in 1984.
Glitter’s dramatic fall from grace began in 1997 when he took a laptop into a Bristol branch of PC World for repair.
An engineer found child abuse images on the hard drive.
Two years later the singer was jailed for four months after a total of 4,000 images were found by police in a subsequent investigation.
Glitter emigrated on release, before being kicked out of Cambodia in 2002 amid claims of sex crimes.
Four years later he was jailed in neighbouring Vietnam for molesting two girls, one aged just ten.
He escaped serious charges of child rape — which carried a death sentence — and returned to the UK in 2008.
He was forced to sign the sex offenders register, but he was arrested once again in 2012 at his multi-million pound home in Westminster.
The self-styled vigilantes, who arrived in a BMW, shouted to passing motorists outside the hostel: ‘Watch out, Glitter’s in there!’
Police described him as a ‘habitual sexual predator who took advantage of the star status afforded to him’
Police would later describe him as a ‘habitual sexual predator who took advantage of the star status afforded to him’.
And in 2015 he was convicted of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under 13 in the 1970s and 1980s.
Sentencing, Judge Alistair McCreath said he could find ‘no real evidence’ that Glitter had atoned for his crimes.
The judge said: ‘It is difficult to overstate the depravity of this dreadful behaviour.’
He added: ‘You did all of them real and lasting damage and you did so for no other reason than to obtain sexual gratification for yourself of a wholly improper kind.’
In June 2021 it was revealed Glitter had been given the green light for freedom.
One of his child victims in Vietnam — whom he molested when she was just aged ten — said at the time: ‘He will always be a terrible danger to young girls.
‘It’s terrifying to think he might soon be free. I still have nightmares about what he did to me.’
Glitter no longer owns the master rights to his songs — meaning he no longer receives any royalties.
In 2019, his song Rock and Roll Part 2 featured in hit movie The Joker, but rights holders insisted he would not receive any royalties.
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