Gary Glitter, whose legal name is Paul Francis Gadd, was ordered by the High Court of Justice in England to pay £508,800 in damages to a woman he sexually abused when she was 12. The award was assessed in pounds sterling on 11 June 2024; the “over $600,000” figure in some headlines is an approximate conversion, not the currency of the court’s order.
What the High Court decided
In BRS v Gadd [2024] EWHC 1403 (KB), Mrs Justice Tipples of the King’s Bench Division assessed damages at £508,800. The claimant, identified in the judgment only as BRS, brought a civil claim arising from sexual abuse in 1977. The judge said the abuse had a “very significant adverse impact on the rest of her life.” Read the approved judgment.
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The amount reported as more than $600,000 is a news headline conversion. The judgment states the award in pounds and does not order payment in US dollars. Rolling Stone Canada’s 11 June 2024 report used the dollar framing.
How the £508,800 award was calculated
| Head of damages | Amount | What it covered |
|---|---|---|
| General damages | £100,000 | Psychiatric injury and its effects on the claimant’s life. |
| Injury to feelings and aggravated damages | £20,000 | The injury to the claimant’s feelings, including Gadd’s use of his fame to abuse her and her need to give evidence in criminal and civil proceedings. |
| Past loss of earnings | £381,000 | Loss attributed to the consequences of the abuse. |
| Future EMDR treatment | £7,800 | Twelve months of eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing treatment. |
| Total | £508,800 | Assessed damages in this civil claim. |
Psychiatric injury and treatment
The judge placed general damages at the upper end of the “moderately severe” category. She considered the serious and prolonged psychiatric injury described in the evidence, its effects on the claimant’s education, work and relationships, and the expert’s cautiously optimistic prognosis if she received EMDR treatment. The court allowed £7,800 for twelve months of that treatment. It did not allow the proposed travel expenses because the expert said treatment could be provided remotely.
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Past earnings
The claimant sought £480,000 for past lost earnings. The judge described the proposed calculation as rough and ready, but accepted that the claimant had been unable to obtain meaningful employment because of the abuse’s consequences. The court allowed a £635,000 figure before applying a 40% discount, taking account of her five children and time out of work. The resulting award for past earnings was £381,000.
Why this was a civil damages decision
The civil claim concerned matters for which Gadd had been convicted at Southwark Crown Court in February 2015: two counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, relating to the claimant. He was serving a 16-year prison sentence for sexual offending, according to the judgment.
The claimant began civil proceedings in May 2022. Gadd did not file an acknowledgment of service, and the claimant obtained default judgment on liability on 14 November 2022. That decision established liability; the later hearing was to assess damages, not to retry the criminal case or decide liability afresh.
The damages hearing took place on 27 March 2024. After an initial adjournment over evidence of service, the judge found that Gadd had properly received the materials and had been offered the opportunity to participate remotely from prison. He did not respond or appear, and the court proceeded in his absence.
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The judgment uses the initials BRS and applies the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992. During the claimant’s lifetime, the law prohibits publishing material likely to identify her as a victim of a sexual offence, unless the restriction is waived or lifted under the Act. This article therefore does not name her or include identifying details.
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