Former glam rock singer Gary Glitter just lost his sheen because the 70-year-old would spend the next 16 years of his life in prison.

The Southward Crown Court found him on Friday guilty of sex with a girl below 13. Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was likewise convicted of one count of attempted rape and four more charges of indecent assault, reports the Telegraph.

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One of his victims was younger than 10 when Gadd went to her room and attempted to sexually molest her in 1975. He abused two more girls, aged 12 and he13, in his dressing room.

Not content with that backstage encounter, Gadd took the inebriated 12-year-old girl to his hotel room and sexually abused her several times in 1977.

In 1979, he assaulted another 13-year-old in his dressing room. It turned out that the jury was not even informed that Gadd was imprisoned in Vietnam for obscene acts with minors.

It would have been a life sentence for the singer, but Judge Alistair McCreath said that although Gadd has caused real and lasting damage to his victims, "his crimes had not reached that threshold.

McCreath pointed out that Gadd abused them only to have sexual gratification that is improper.

The ageing former rock star found it difficult to walk the streets because he was vilified, Gad's lawyer, Sallie Bennett-Jenkins, told the court. Surprisingly, the septuagenarian singer still has fans from the 1970s who attending the three-week hearing to provide their idol moral support.

His arrest was part of the Metropolitan Police's Operation Yewtree launched after BBC DJ Jimmy Savile was discovered to be a pedophile. On Thursday, another report came out that Savile raped or assaulted at least 63 patients at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital while doing a fundraising campaign.

Tagsgary glitter, sexual assault, rock star