The trial of Gary Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, began this week with the prosecution alleging that Glitter tried to force himself onto an underage girl in the 1970s.

Gary Glitter Trial Begins

Glitter, a British rocker, is currently facing 10 counts of sexual abuse in the UK, including attempted rape and unlawful intercourse, with regards to three separate women, all of whom were underage at the time of the alleged assaults.

Gary Glitter Allegedly Tried To Rape 8-Yr-Old

Prosecutor John Price began the trial Monday, Jan. 19, recounting how Glitter allegedly tried to rape a young girl in the mid-1970s. The girl was 8-years-old at the time of the alleged incident. According to the prosecutor, Glitter came into the schoolgirl’s room at night, apparently drunk, and asked her if she wanted to “cuddle” – what she believed was a “clear and unmistakable attempt to rape her.” The accuser claims she was able to fend off Glitter’s attempts by wrapping herself in a “cocoon” of blankets and tucked-in sheets.

“She only managed to prevent him from succeeding [to rape her] by moving away from him in the bed until she had moved so far, that she remembers she fell into the ‘envelope’ or ‘cocoon’ formed at the edge of the bed by the fact that the covers and blankets had been tucked beneath the mattress,” Price said.

The next day, the victim alleged, Glittler acted like nothing had happened and gave her some chocolate. The accuser told her mother and friends of the incident at the time, but did not go to the police until Glitter plead guilty to possession of child pornography in 1999.

“It seemed to her [the alleged victim] that recent events in Bristol – as she understood them to be from the publicity – offered a better chance that she might be believed when accusing so famous and popular a man of so dreadful a crime,” Price told the court.

Another alleged victim claimed that she was 12 when Glitter gave her champagne and took her to his hotel suite after a concert in 1977. “It was there, in his hotel bedroom, her mother having been taken elsewhere by someone else, that she says he subjected her to a prolonged episode of sexual abuse involving a full range of sexual activity culminating in intercourse, prior to which he plied her with alcohol – champagne,” Price recounted.

Another woman claimed a similar incident occurred with her when she was 13 in 1979.

“Have both of them [the alleged victims] chosen to subject themselves to the ordeal of giving evidence in a public court about how a famous man came to indulge himself sexually with them whilst they were each still a child simply because that is what happened, or are they here falsely to accuse him?” Price stated.

Glitter, now 70, denies all charges.