Gary Glitter, paedophile glam rock star - whose real name is Paul Gadd - has been ordered to pay a victim £508,800 in damages. 

Glitter was jailed for 16 years in 2015 for sexually abusing three schoolgirls, including the claimant, for offences which came to light as part of Operation Yewtree, the Metropolitan Police investigation launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. His sentence expires in February 2031. He was automatically released from prison in February 2023 after serving half of his fixed-term determinate sentence. However, he was returned to prison within six weeks when police monitoring showed he had breached his licence conditions by allegedly viewing downloaded images of children.

The woman brought her claim after Glitter was convicted of sexually assaulting and raping her on several occasions when she was age 12. He had met her and her mother backstage at a concert.

Mrs Justice Tipples noted that Glitter had failed to acknowledge that the compensation claim had been lodged against him - meaning he had lost the case by default - and had not responded to an offer to participate remotely in the court hearing to assess the value of the claim.

The claimant had a diagnosis of Complex PTSD and Recurrent Depression. Mrs Justice Tipples found that general damages fell within the moderately severe category of the recently updated JC Guidelines for Sexual and/or Physical Abuse and assessed them at £100,000. She also concluded that it was appropriate to award an additional sum for aggravated damages in the sum of £20,000 due to the nature of the sexual abuse, the fact Glitter took advantage of his very significant fame to abuse the claimant and that she had had to give evidence in criminal and civil proceedings. In addition she awarded £381,000 for loss of earnings and £7,800 for future therapy and treatment. Glitter will also be required to pay interest and the claimant’s costs which are yet to be assessed. 

Of further note the judge was referred to the introduction to the 17^th edition of the Judicial College Guidelines which notes "For the avoidance of doubt, of course, these guideline figures should be increased by the appropriate index for inflation between August 2023 and the date of any assessment of damages". Therefore in making an award Mrs Justice Tipples noted that the guideline brackets for severe and moderately severe awards should be increased (see below). The calculation to follow is described in the judgment and clearly will vary with time and rates of inflation. The increase is roughly a further 2.2% and for illustration purposes we have applied that increase to the moderate and less severe categories too as those calculations are not reflected in the judgment. 

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