Gary Glitter is being recalled to jail for breaking his licence conditions.

The 78-year-old was released on licence last month after serving half of his 16-year sentence for sexually abusing three schoolgirls.

A Probation Service spokesperson said: “Protecting the public is our number one priority.

“That’s why we set tough licence conditions and when offenders breach them, we don’t hesitate to return them to custody.”

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, had a string of chart hits in the 1970s. He was convicted and jailed in 2015 for the historical sex attacks.

He attacked two girls, aged 12 and 13, after inviting them backstage to his dressing room and isolating them from their mothers.

In 1975, the singer crept into the bed of his third victim – a girl who was aged under 10 at the time – in an attempt to rape her.

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The allegations came to light when he became the first person to be arrested under Operation Yewtree – the investigation launched by the Metropolitan Police in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.

On his release in February, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said that offenders like Glitter are “closely monitored” by both the police and Probation Service.

“[They] face some of the strictest licence conditions including being fitted with a GPS tag,” the spokesperson said.

“If the offender breaches these conditions at any point, they can go back behind bars.

“We’ve already introduced tougher sentences for the worst offenders and ended the automatic halfway release for serious crimes.”

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Gary Glitter released from prison

A day after his release, a group of protestors were understood to have gathered outside the bail hostel, in which Glitter was placed after leaving HMP The Verne, a low-security category C jail in Portland, Dorset.

They demanded he be removed from the hostel, which is in a residential area, with one man attempting to scale a fence.

A Hampshire police spokesperson said at the time that no arrests were made and the situation was resolved.

Richard Scorer, head of the abuse law team at Slater and Gordon – which represents one of Glitter’s victims – said his release was “particularly distressing and traumatic” for those he attacked.