Pop paedo Gary Glitter given £15k NHS knee operation despite patients waiting four months for surgery
POP paedo Gary Glitter had a £15,000 knee op in a NHS hospital — despite patients having to wait more than four months for the surgery.
The pervert was given his own side room and guarded around the clock by prison officers last November.
And the fiend, 78, left healthcare staff disgusted with his “pervy” antics and vile tales of his life abroad — where he abused girls.
The move was slammed last night as “totally unfair” by one of the hundreds of patients who have had to wait for an operation.
Glitter was returned to prison last week after The Sun on Sunday revealed how he scoured a smartphone for the dark web in his bail hostel.
But it has now been revealed he spent five nights at Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester, where he was handcuffed to the bed and had two jail guards with him.
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A source said last night: “Glitter seemed to come straight in and had a room waiting for him.
“It was all arranged in advance, although we didn’t know how long he had waited for the op in prison.”
He was booked in under his real name Paul Gadd.
At the time he was an inmate at HMP The Verne, Dorset.
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Staff were told not to mention his vile crimes, or to treat him differently from other patients.
But they were also instructed to remove their surnames from badges, and warned not to reveal any personal information to him.
Our source added: “No-one could believe the treatment he was getting and he seemed to revel in the attention.
“While he was there, Glitter was very chatty and cheerful — and over-friendly. He asked quite a lot of questions about the staff, especially the younger female ones.
“He took a shine to one young, female nurse who was quite attractive and it made her feel sick. He also spoke quite a lot about going abroad, and said what a great time he had in Cambodia and Vietnam.
“There was no shred of remorse about what he had done.”
Staff were told to avoid physical contact with him.
The source said: “Glitter also joked about how the ‘service’ in the hospital was better than it was in prison. He spent most of his time sitting up in bed, chatting or reading books.
“He had the operation because of his age and his knee was degenerating. But, by no means, was it an emergency and quite a lot of people want knee operations who can’t have them.”
A Ministry of Justice source said that jail bosses had to give prisoners the same healthcare as the rest of the population.
Last night, Tory MP Chris Loder for West Dorset, whose constituency the hospital is in, said: “Preferably Glitter would not be anywhere in West Dorset, let alone a local hospital.
“He definitely should not be receiving routine surgery before local residents who have been waiting a long time for treatment.”
An NHS knee op typically costs around £15,000.
Glitter’s security detail and travel would have added thousands to the bill.
Latest NHS figures reveal in one year 185 people waited more than the “accepted” 18 weeks for a knee op at Dorset County Hospital after referral.
The move for Glitter to get surgery was criticised by arthritis sufferer Rob Martinez, 66.
The former insurance consultant was referred for a double knee op in October 2019.
He waited a year for surgery on his right knee, then another six months for his left.
Rob, of Sandhurst, Berks, said: “The preferential treatment Glitter seems to have got is totally unfair. How the heck did he wangle that? It’s terrible he was allowed to slip the net and go straight in.”
Former Met Police detective Mike Hames — who set up the force’s paedophile unit — said: “It is disturbing that while people often wait for a year or 18 months for these operations, and thousands are on waiting lists, that Glitter has had a knee op.”
We told last week how Glitter – released last month — had been caught browsing a smartphone in his bail hostel. We revealed how the fiend spoke about search engines and mentioned using the “onion” — or dark web.
It sparked a probe – and saw Glitter recalled on Monday night.
Officials are understood to have monitored Glitter’s phone activity remotely before taking the decision to return him to jail.
He is held at Winchester Prison, but is likely to be moved back to The Verne in Dorset.
Glitter was first jailed in 1999, after being caught with 4,000 child abuse images on his laptop in 1997.
He fled abroad after his release but in 2002, Glitter was expelled from Cambodia amid reports of sex crime allegations.
In March 2006, he was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam and spent two-and-a-half years in prison.
The ex-glam rocker was convicted and jailed in 2015 for historic sex attacks.
He abused two girls, aged 12 and 13, after inviting them backstage to his dressing room after a gig.
He crept into the bed of a third victim – aged under 10 – in an attempt to rape her in 1975.
He was freed halfway through a 16-year sentence before being recalled this week.
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A Prison Service spokesman said: “We do not comment on individual prisoners.”
A Dorset County Hospital spokeswoman declined to comment.
Victim in praise for our story
A VICTIM of Gary Glitter yesterday thanked The Sun on Sunday after our investigation put the serial abuser back behind bars.
The woman was one of three who testified against him at his 2015 trial.
Speaking via her solicitor, she said: “He should never have been released in the first place.”
Glitter was recalled to prison on Monday after we caught him breaching licence conditions.
Richard Scorer, a specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, said: “My client is grateful that Glitter was caught breaching his licence conditions thanks to excellent undercover work by journalists.
“She is very concerned, however, that The Sun on Sunday had to do this. Why wasn’t he caught by the Probation Service?”