Glitter Blows Kisses As He Is Found Guilty

Former glam rock star Gary Glitter is facing a lengthy jail term after being found guilty of a string of historical sex offences against three young girls.

His victims included one who was less than 10-years-old when he crept into her bed and tried to rape her in 1975.

Glitter was also guilty of having sex with a 12-year-old and indecently assaulting a 13-year-old.

He had met the two backstage on separate occasions and they were alone with him after being isolated from their mothers, a court heard.

The former chart topper was at the height of his fame when he preyed on the youngsters.

The disgraced singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was found guilty of one count of attempted rape, four indecent assaults and one count of sexual intercourse.

Gadd, 70, shook his head and pursed his lips as the verdicts were read out at Southwark Crown Court.

He blew kisses to a public gallery full of reporters as he was remanded in custody and led down to the cells.

Also, as he was led away he turned to a friend in the gallery and indicated with his finger that the jury was crazy.

Gadd attacked the 12-year-old girl after a show at a Leicester nightclub in 1977.

She initially went backstage with her mother and had a gold jacket autographed while drinking champagne, but was then invited to the singer's hotel suite.

Jurors were told Gadd pushed her on to a bed and subjected her to a prolonged period of sexual abuse.

He was convicted of carrying out two indecent assaults against her and one count of sexual intercourse.

The third girl was aged 13 when the singer invited her to sit on his lap in his dressing room at a Watford club between October 1979 and December 1980.

He forcefully kissed the youngster and then slid his hand up her skirt. He was found guilty of carrying out two indecent assaults against her.

Gadd was convicted by a jury of five men and seven women and will be sentenced on 27 February.

He was cleared of two counts of indecent assault and one count of administering a drug or other thing in order to facilitate sexual intercourse.

Gadd, from Marylebone, central London, denied all the allegations.

He claimed there was no way he could have abused the girls in his dressing room because his rigorous wig-maintenance routine required him to return to his suite immediately and clean his hairpiece.

The allegations came to light only around 40 years later when Gadd became the first person to be arrested under Operation Yewtree - the investigation launched by the Met in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.

The glam-rocker had suffered a spectacular fall from grace , when he admitted possessing 4,000 images of child pornography and was jailed for four months in 1999.

In 2002 Glitter was expelled from Cambodia over unspecified allegations, and in March 2006 he was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam.

During the trial in London, all three of Glitter's victims sobbed as they recounted their ordeals.

Baljit Ubhey, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Paul Gadd abused his access to young fans in order to give himself the opportunities to assault and abuse his victims. Crimes such as these have repercussions for victims that can last for a lifetime.

"The bravery of the victims and other witnesses in this case cannot be understated and their testimony has been vital in bringing Paul Gadd to justice. I hope today's verdict will be of some small help to these victims."

When asked whether any other complainants had come forward during the course of the trial, a Met police spokeswoman said: "Officers have received other information and it is currently being assessed."