Former pop star Gary Glitter has left a central London police station after his arrest earlier today by police investigating the Jimmy Savile scandal.
He was arrested at 7.15am at his home in central London and taken to a police station.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said this morning: “Officers working on Operation Yewtree have today arrested a man in his 60s in connection with the investigation.
“The man, from London, was arrested at approximately 7.15am on suspicion of sexual offences and has been taken into custody at a London police station.
“The individual falls under the strand of the investigation we have termed ‘Savile and others’.”
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was photographed leaving Charing Cross police station shortly before 5pm today. Scotland Yard was not available for comment on Glitter’s release. Police did not say what led to his arrest today.
The late TV presenter Savile, who died last year at the age of 84, has been described as one of the most prolific sex offenders in recent UK history.
Scotland Yard detectives are dealing with about 300 alleged victims and are following more than 400 lines of inquiry.
It emerged today that Savile’s cottage in Allt na Reigh, Glencoe, Scotland, was vandalised overnight.A spokesman for the Northern Constabulary force said “abusive slogans” were painted on the walls of the property.
Officers appealed for anyone with information to contact them. Earlier this week officers searched the cottage to look for “any evidence of any others being involved in any offending with him”.
Glitter’s arrest came as the chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, said he was dedicated to finding out the truth about the scandal that has engulfed the corporation, vowing there would be “no covering our backs”.
Writing in today’s Mail on Sunday newspaper he said the BBC’s reputation was on the line, and that it has risked squandering the public’s trust.
Speaking of Savile’s apparent decades of criminality, he wrote: “Can it really be the case that no one knew what he was doing?
Did some turn a blind eye to criminality? Did some prefer not to follow up their suspicions because of this criminal’s popularity and place in the schedules? Were reports of criminality put aside or buried?
“Even those of us who were not there at the time are inheritors of the shame.” He also apologised “unreservedly” to the abused women who spoke to the BBC’s Newsnight programme but did not have their stories told when the report was axed.
The BBC chairman said the two independent inquiries that have been set up — one into the Newsnight report, the other into the BBC’s culture and practices in the years Savile worked there — must get to the truth of what happened.
“Now my immediate priority is to get to the bottom of the Savile scandal and to make any and every change necessary in the
BBC to learn the lessons from our independent investigations,” he said. Speaking to Andrew Marr on the BBC, Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman said there needed to be an over-arching independent inquiry into the Savile case.
Too often the criminal justice system gives the victim the impression they will not be believed if they come forward with allegations of sexual abuse, she said, adding: “If there is an assumption that you won’t be believed then you are less likely to come and if you do come forward and then you meet that culture of disbelief, then it is going to be swept under the carpet.”
British justice secretary Chris Grayling said he was not convinced by the case for an immediate judge-led inquiry of the kind she proposed.
He told the same programme: “There is always a danger if you set up a very substantial inquiry process of that kind that it takes much longer to get to the truth.
“What should be happening right now first and foremost — and clearly is happening with the police — is we should be looking to see who is still around who was involved, and criminal proceedings should follow if people were guilty of participating in these offences alongside Jimmy Savile. That is of paramount importance.”