LONDON (Reuters) - Former British pop singer Gary Glitter, who shot to fame in the 1970s as a "glam-rock" star but was later convicted of child sex crimes, was found guilty on Thursday of indecently assaulting three girls.
Glitter, 70, whose real name is Paul Gadd, came to prominence with the hit "Rock and Roll", and became renowned for his figure-hugging shiny silver all-in-one suits and platform shoes.
But his reputation was destroyed after he served two months in jail in 1999 for possession of child pornography. He then moved to Cambodia, but was deported in 2002 due to suspected sex offences.
In 2006, a Vietnamese court convicted him of committing obscene acts with two girls aged 10 and 11 and sentenced him to four years in jail. On his release he returned to Britain.
On Thursday he was convicted of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under the age of 13, all in the 1970s. Gadd, who denied all the charges, will be sentenced on Feb. 27 at Southwark Crown Court.
"Paul Gadd abused his access to young fans in order to give himself the opportunities to assault and abuse his victims," Chief Crown Prosecutor Baljit Ubhey said in a statement after the verdict.
Glitter was the first person to be arrested as part of a wider police investigation into accusations of historical sex offences by show business personalities triggered by revelations that the late BBC television presenter Jimmy Savile had been a prolific sex offender for decades.
The broader investigation, codenamed Operation Yewtree, has led to the conviction of several former high-profile figures including veteran Australian entertainer Rolf Harris and the country's best-known showbiz publicist, Max Clifford.