Disgraced Popstar Gary Glitter freed from prison

Gary Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, has been freed from prison after serving only half of his 16-year sentence.

Glitter, 78 was sentenced in 2015 for four counts of indecent assault, attempted rape and one for having sex with a girl under 13.

Being one of the biggest pop stars of the 1970s, he was at the very height of his fame when he invited two girls aged 12 and 13 to his dressing room and attacked them.

In 1975 he crept into the bed of a girl under 10 years old and tried to rape her. Judge Alistar McCreath who sentenced Glitter in 2015 described the abuse of the girl under 10 stating: "It is difficult to overstate the depravity of this dreadful behaviour."

Glitter denied the allegations against him but after a three-week trial was found guilty. He was the first person to be arrested under Operation Yewtree, launched by the met in 2012 in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. This allowed the allegations against Glitter to come to light.

He previously admitted to the possession of thousands of images that showed child sex abuse and in 1999 was jailed for four months. In 2002 he was turned out of Cambodia due to reports of sex crime allegations. He then spent two and a half years in jail in March 2006 after being convicted of sexually abusing two young girls in neighbouring Vietnam.

When he returned to the UK in 2008 he was made to sign the sex offenders register. 2012 led to his arrest at his home in London following Operation Yewtree before his case in January 2015.

A spokesperson for the justice ministry has told the BBC that Glitter will be monitored closely by probation officers and the BBC understand he will be fitted with a tag.