On a grey Tuesday in July 2025, officers from the Metropolitan Police sat down with a man who had once filled arenas with glitter and noise. Paul Gadd — known to the world by his stage name Gary Glitter — was formally interviewed at HMP Channings Wood, a closed prison tucked into the hills of Devon, where he has been held for some years. What followed that interview was a set of criminal charges that reach back nearly half a century, to the terraced streets of Kensington in the late 1970s, when the singer was at the height of his fame and a young girl, whose name has not been made public, was allegedly made his victim. The Metropolitan Police has confirmed that Gadd now faces four charges in total: one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of thirteen, and three counts of indecent assault on a girl under the age of fourteen.

The alleged offences are said to have taken place at a residential address in Kensington between 1978 and 1981 — a period of three years during which British pop culture was, to much of the world, an object of fascination and envy. The sole alleged victim, who is currently being supported by specialist police officers, first brought the allegations to the Met on 9 January 2025, prompting an investigation that moved with the careful deliberation that such serious historical cases demand. The Crown Prosecution Service, which reviewed the evidence before authorising the charges, was unambiguous about its reasoning. Bethan David, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS London, stated that prosecutors had worked to establish both sufficient evidence and a clear public interest in bringing the matter before a court.

Gadd is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 5 August.