Gary Glitter's tattoo-artist son hopes to finally meet his paedo dad
‘I hope I will finally meet my dad’: Gary Glitter’s tattoo artist son says he dreams of seeing his paedo father soon – after shamed singer’s jail release for child sex crimes
- EXCLUSIVE: Gary Glitter’s son, Gary Jr, 21, has never met his peadophile father
- He hopes to see him and refuses to accept his father is guilty of abusing children
Gary Glitter’s son says the paedophile singer dreams of starting a new life and is hoping to meet him now that he has been released from jail.
In his first interview, Glitter’s son Gary Pantoja Sosa says they have been talking regularly on the phone and hope to settle in the same country but somewhere ‘out of the way.’
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Gary Jr, who lives in Gran Canaria, Spain, where he works as a tattoo artist, revealed: ‘I have never met my father in person, because that has never been possible, but we speak on the phone all the time.
‘Whenever I speak to him, he is in good spirits. He has lots of energy and is always very positive.’
He added: ‘I never get the impression that he is depressed. I hope we will get to meet each other finally.
Gary Glitter’s son (right) Gary Pantoja Sosa says the paedophile singer (left) dreams of starting a new life and is hoping to meet him now that he has been released from jail
Glitter was a huge star before his crimes against children were exposed in 1997 when he took his computer to be fixed and a technician discovered 4,000 horrific child abuse images on it
Gary Jr (pictured), who was born in Havana before moving to Spain, has never met his father Glitter because he has been in and out of prison – but wants to meet him now he’s been freed
‘My dream is that we will live in the same country. I don’t know how we will make that happen, but we have talked about it, and it’s possible I will live with my father.
‘I know it is dangerous for him in Britain, as there is so much hatred towards him, so we will need to keep a low profile and stay somewhere out of the way.
‘I feel in my heart we will see each other soon.’
Gary Jr, 21, also spoke about his fears for his 78-year-old dad’s safety after he served just half of his 16-year-sentence for abusing young girls.
Shamed 1970s glam rocker Glitter is currently being held in a bail hostel in the UK following his release from HMP The Verne in Portland, Dorset.
He will be electronically tagged and asked to undergo regular polygraph – lie detector – tests to stop him reoffending now he is back in the outside world.
Woman who was raped aged ten by Gary Glitter reveals she wept after learning of the pop paedophile’s imminent release from prison after just eight years behind bars
Glitter with his youngest victim, a 10-year-old girl, in Vietnam, in 2005
But in a move that will outrage his victims, it appears he will be free to move abroad after he leaves the hostel.
Glitter met Gary Jr’s mum while he was hiding out in communist Cuba as he tried to evade child abuse charges back home in the 1990s.
His son says they have been in constant contact since he was born in 2001 despite never having the chance to meet as Glitter was in and out of prison.
Gary Jr – whose full name is Gary Pantoja Sosa – refuses to accept his father is guilty of abusing children and views his string of convictions as a conspiracy against his old man.
For the first time, he admits that Glitter supported his mum financially when he was behind bars.
But he adds that the money suddenly stopped when – he was told – his dad’s bank accounts were frozen by the UK government.
He is not clear when that happened, but says this forced him to fly to Russia’s capital Moscow to seek a regular income in November 2021.
Last year, he moved to Spain, where a number of his maternal relatives that are not blood relatives of Glitter’s, had previously fled.
Speaking before his dad was released, Gary Jr said: ‘The economic situation in my home country is very bad. My mother has never worked but my father has always supported us, so we did not struggle financially when I was growing up.
‘I don’t know exactly how much he was paying because I was a child, but everyone knows that my dad’s bank accounts have been frozen, so obviously whatever support he was providing has stopped.
‘And even if you have money in Cuba, it is not possible to buy the things you need.
‘I don’t know why, but the system in Cuba is broken. It was better during the dictatorship under Fidel Castro.
‘I moved to Moscow as it is one of the only places that Cubans are allowed to visit and I worked as a tattoo artist there.
‘I don’t know if I will ever return to Cuba. I have decided that if I want to pursue my dreams, it has to be somewhere else.
‘I want to be a singer one day and make my money from music just like my dad. I am not in a band right now, but I like to sing and write songs with my friends.
‘I love rock music and my dad’s old songs and I listen to them whenever I need inspiration. My favourite track of his is Rock and Roll.
‘I guess I have inherited some of his talent. I am also a big fan of pop music and Michael Jackson.
‘My father is always encouraging me and saying that I should not let fear hold me back. He says I need to be confident and follow my dreams.’
Glitter – real name Paul Gadd – was raised by a single mother in Banbury, Oxfordshire.
At the height of his career, Glittermania helped him rack up 12 consecutive Top 10 singles and he would perform in front of sell-out crowds wearing sparkling, silver jumpsuits and platform heels.
Hits like ‘I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am),’ released in 1972, still rake in a fortune in royalties and are streamed on apps like Spotify, where he has over 700,000 monthly listeners.
Glitter met Gary Jr’s mother Yudenia Sosa Martínez (pictured together) while he was hiding out in Havana, Cuba as he tried to evade child abuse charges back home in the 1990s
Yudenia (pictured) is said to have continued to receive child support for Gary Jr while Glitter was behind bars – and is said to have been bought a flat in the Cuban capital for £20,000
Gary Jr (pictured) told MailOnline: ‘I don’t remember when I first found out about his child abuse conviction, but this has been a dark cloud over my family for so many years’
Gary Jr (pictured) said his paedophile father Glitter is unlikely to return to London, where he is believed to own a luxury top-floor flat in a Victorian red-brick mansion
There was outrage in 2019 when ‘Rock and Roll Part II’ was used in a key scene in the Joker movie starring actor Joaquin Phoenix. This suggested he might be in line for another bumper pay day amidst suggestions he has managed to stash most of his cash abroad.
Glitter’s paedophilia first came to light in November 1997 when a technician discovered 4000 horrific child abuse images on the hard drive of a laptop that he had taken in for repair in Bristol.
In 1999 he was given four months in prison and put on the sex offenders register.
He was next found hiding out on a yacht off Andalusia, Spain, not far from where his youngest son now lives, where he was living under the pseudonym Larry Brilliante.
Glitter next moved to Cuba in the Caribbean where had a short-lived relationship with Gary Jr’s mother, who was a farm girl in her 20s at the time.
Yudenia Sosa Martínez is today understood to be living in the flat in Havana that the star bought her for £20,000, with the 14-year-old daughter she had with another man.
Glitter, who has two more children from a previous marriage, moved to Cambodia in South-East Asia shortly after his Cuban son was born.
He was deported from there for suspected child abuse charges in 2002 and next settled in Vietnam where he was jailed in 2006 for molesting two girls aged 11 and 12.
After 19 other countries refused him entry, he was deported back to the UK where in 2015 he was jailed by Operation Yewtree detectives for abusing three girls aged between 10 and 13 from 1975 to 1980.
In 2021, comic Jim Davidson revealed that Glitter was preparing for his release.
He said: ‘I spoke to Paul when I visited The Verne two years ago. He’s remorseful and he looked ready to start a new life.’
His son says Glitter is unlikely to return to London, where he is believed to own a luxury top-floor flat in a Victorian red-brick mansion.
Gary Jr said: ‘Growing up without a father in the house was hard at times, but my mum installed good values in me and I had a good childhood for the most part.
‘We never wanted for anything. From the age of 10, I would be out skateboarding in the street and I still love to skateboard.
Glitter was released to a bail hostel in Waterlooville, Hants, after his release from jail. Angry vigilantes surrounded the hostel and shouted to passers-by ‘Watch out, Glitter’s in there!’
Police were called after two vigilantes stormed into the hostel’s driveway and one clambered onto the electric gate during the drama when residents learned the paedophile was there
‘My mum and dad are still friends. I don’t know if he is the love of her life, you will have to ask her that question.
‘But she says that my father and I are very similar. We both have a lot of energy and a good vibe.
‘Back in Cuba, I only have my mother and sister, whose father my mother is now separated from.
‘Most of my mother’s relatives have moved to Spain to start a new life. I tried to move to Spain before I went to Russia, but they would not give me a visa so I had to wait.
‘My dream is to move to England one day. I don’t know where but not London as there are too many paparazzi there and I want to have more privacy.
‘I don’t have any contact with any of my other family members in the UK, only with my dad.
‘I always say that family is the people that love you, so I have no wish to meet anyone else.
‘My dad has always been there for me and he has always given me advice and support.
‘He calls me on the phone whenever he can. His Spanish is not great and my English is basic but we somehow manage to have long conversations.
‘I don’t remember when I first found out about his child abuse conviction, but this has been a dark cloud over my family for so many years.’
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