Gary Glitter's Real Name: Paul Gadd

Quick answer: The singer is known professionally as Gary Glitter. BBC News and The Guardian independently give the name Paul Gadd. A longer form, Paul Francis Gadd, appears in a 1999 Guardian account.

Real name and early life

Independent publishers support the documented name Paul Gadd. BBC News, in a February 5, 2015, profile, says his real name is Paul Gadd. The Guardian, in a February 5, 2015, trial report, independently says his real name is Paul Gadd. A November 13, 1999, Guardian report independently says he was born Paul Francis Gadd in May 1944 in Banbury, Oxfordshire. That longer form, and the 1944 Banbury details, rest on the 1999 Guardian account.

Career highlights

BBC News says the song "Rock and Roll" reached second place in the charts in 1972, and that "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)" took him to the top of the charts for four weeks in the summer of 1973. The Guardian, in its 1999 report, independently describes him as a glam-rock star with a string of top 10 hits and names "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)" as his signature theme.

Convictions

The Guardian reported on February 3, 2023, that in 1999 he was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to 54 charges of making indecent photographs of children under 16. BBC News independently says he was jailed for four months in connection with that 1999 case. The 2023 Guardian account says that in March 2006 he was sentenced in Vietnam to three years in jail; BBC News independently says he was convicted there in 2006 and jailed for three years. In 2015, the 2023 Guardian report says, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison after being found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of one count of attempted rape, one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, and four counts of indecent assault, offences from the 1970s and 1980s. The Guardian's February 5, 2015, trial report independently records those guilty verdicts on six counts and says he was cleared of two counts of indecent assault and one other count. A February 2023 Guardian report says he was released after serving half of the 16-year sentence. Sky News reported that less than six weeks after that release he was recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions, and that on June 17, 2025, the Parole Board refused his release after a paper review; his sentence expires in February 2031.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Gary Glitter or Paul Gadd are looking for the same singer. BBC News and The Guardian support the name used in the title.