Rocker Gary Glitter Jailed For 16 Years For Child Sex Abuse

Enlarge this image toggle caption Elizabeth Cook /PA Photos/Landov Elizabeth Cook /PA Photos/Landov

Rocker Gary Glitter, best known for the stadium rock anthem "Rock & Roll (Part 2)," was sentenced to 16 years in prison for sex offenses during the 1970s and '80s against three girls between the ages of 8 and 13.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was sentenced today for attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under 13, the BBC reports. A jury found the 70-year-old guilty of the charges on Feb. 5, and Judge Alistair McCreath said then that Glitter would remain jailed until his sentencing.

"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," McCreath said today.

The judge said that despite the seriousness of the crimes, he was permitted to use only the more lenient guidelines of the '70s and '80s while sentencing Glitter. For example, the charge of having sex with a child under 13 carries a life sentence today, but carried a seven-year sentence at that time.

Glitter, 70, showed no emotion as he left the dock, the BBC noted. As we have previously reported, Glitter had denied the allegations.

He was convicted of child sex abuse in 2006 in Vietnam and sentenced to three years in prison. In 1999, he was convicted of possessing as many as 4,000 images of child abuse and jailed for four months.

Glitter was the first person to be arrested as part of the British investigation into allegations of child abuse against the late BBC television host Jimmy Savile.