Gary Glitter arrested over Savile affair – and other stars begin to worry
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Your support makes all the difference.The pop star Gary Glitter has become the first person to be arrested by detectives investigating allegations of multiple sex attacks by the BBC presenter Jimmy Savile.
The singer, who was previously jailed for child-sex offences in Vietnam, was questioned for nine hours by Scotland Yard yesterday as publicist Max Clifford, pictured inset, said he had been contacted by 15 other celebrities who believe they may be dragged into the Savile investigation.
The 68-year-old Glitter was detained at his home at 7am on suspicion of committing sexual offences.
He was interviewed at Charing Cross police station in London before being released last night on bail until December, "pending further inquiries". Following speculation that other celebrities from the 1970s and 1980s could be contacted, Mr Clifford said stars were worried that when "young girls [were] throwing themselves at them… they never asked for anybody's birth certificate".
He added: "We are talking about a lot of people that were huge names in the Sixties and Seventies and a lot of them barely remember what they did last week."
Since an ITV documentary exposed Savile earlier this month, 300 people have complained to the Metropolitan Police that they were sexually abused by the late disc jockey or his associates, and officers are working through 400 lines of inquiry.
Around 60 of the complaints are thought to relate to people other than Savile – who was hailed as a broadcasting legend when he died aged 84 last October.
One of his victims, Karin Ward, told a Panorama investigation that a well-known entertainer who has not been named tried to grope her in Savile's dressing room.
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was a star in the 1970s and 1980s when he often appeared on Savile's make-a-wish-come-true show for children, Jim'll Fix It. He was jailed for three years in Vietnam in 2006 for abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11.
He was filmed early yesterday morning, wearing a hat and dark coat and gloves, being driven away from his home by detectives. Glitter's arrest came as the BBC's chairman, Chris Patten, demanded the corporation must uncover exactly what it knew and when about Savile's activities, no matter how "terrible".
Scotland Yard last week described Savile, who was knighted in 1990 for "charitable services", as "undoubtedly" one of the most prolific sex offenders of recent history. He is thought to have abused boys and girls for decades at TV studios, NHS hospitals and an approved school.
The Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman called for a judge-led independent inquiry into the Savile affair.
In a statement released by his nephew, Roger Foster, Savile's family spoke of their shock at his paedophilia over the weekend: "How could the person we thought we knew and loved do such a thing?"
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