Gary Glitter, the former pop star behind hits such as “Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again,” is … back in a police station again.
The 70s glam rock star, previously convicted in the UK for possession of child pornography, was arrested early Sunday morning by British police investigating the Jimmy Savile scandal . Glitter, who was also found guilty of having sex with a minor by a Vietnamese court in 2006, has since been released. A Scotland Yard statement revealed:
“Officers working on Operation Yewtree have today arrested a man in his 60s in connection with the investigation. The man, from London, was arrested at approximately 7.15am on suspicion of sexual offences and has been taken into custody at a London police station. The individual falls under the strand of the investigation we have termed ‘Savile and others.’ “
Gary Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, was photographed leaving Charing Cross police station in London on Sunday afternoon. Scotland Yard said the former rocker was bailed to return to the police station in mid-December pending further inquiries.
Glitter’s arrest came as late TV presenter Savile, who died last year aged 84, stands accused of sexually molesting or raping hundreds of individuals during the 1960s and 1970s. Initially, the accusations emerged in late September in an ITV1 documentary, Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile .
The program featured claims by up to ten women, including one aged under 14 at the time, that they had been sexually abused by Savile. As national media attention around the accusations escalated, further reports of abuse were made to police. By October 19, British police were pursuing 400 lines of inquiry based on testimony from 200 witnesses.
Chairman of the BBC Trust Chris Patten has promised that the organisation would conduct a investigation into the scandal and that there would be “no covering our backs.”
Writing in the Mail on Sunday , Patten said:
“My immediate priority is to get to the bottom of the Savile scandal and to make any and every change necessary in the BBC to learn the lessons from our independent investigations.
“David Cameron is entirely correct to say that unless the BBC puts it house in order, we will be fatally damaged. How could the BBC, for example, ever cover sexual crime in other organisations unless we deal thoroughly with what happened in our own?
“So no grandstanding, no covering our backs. My primary task with my fellow trustees is to sort this out, as fast as we can, once and for all. Our public expects no less.