Compared with the fate of other former disc jockeys, elderly pop stars and motley faded celebrities who have recently been sentenced for child abuse, the 16-year term handed down to singer Gary Glitter, real name Paul Francis Gadd, doesn’t seem out of line. If it departs from the sentencing guidelines and tariffs currently in force, no doubt the Court of Appeal will correct it. But without diminishing in any way the right of his victims to see justice done nor minimising the ordeal they suffered, one can feel pity for the man himself. He is 71, clearly aged, broken and infirm, and will spend the next eight years at least behind bars. Or die there. Gadd was convicted of offences that included the attempted rape of an eight-year-old girl and having sex with a girl aged 12. Obviously h
05 March 2015, The Tablet
Thanks to official negligence, Jimmy Savile got away with it right to the end
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