Gary Glitter has been made bankrupt after failing to pay more than £500,000 in damages to a woman he abused when she was 12 years old.

She sued the disgraced singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, after he was found guilty of attacking her and two other schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980.

Glitter, 80, was jailed for 16 years in 2015 and released in 2023 but was recalled to prison less than six weeks later after breaching his parole conditions.

A judge awarded the woman £508,800, including £381,000 in lost earnings and £7,800 for future therapy and treatment, saying she was subjected to abuse “of the most serious kind”.

The court heard she had not worked for decades due to the trauma of being repeatedly raped and “humiliated” by the singer.

Glitter was made bankrupt last month at the County Court at Torquay and Newton Abbot, in Devon – the county where he is reportedly serving his sentence in Channings Wood prison, in Newton Abbot.

Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon, the law firm representing the woman, said: “We confirm that Gadd has been made bankrupt following our client’s application.

“As he has done throughout, Gadd has refused to cooperate with the process and continues to treat his victims with contempt.

“We hope and trust that the parole board will take his behaviour into account in any future parole applications, as it clearly demonstrates that he has never changed, shows no remorse and remains a serious risk to the public.”

Glitter was first jailed for four months in 1999 after he admitted possessing around 4,000 indecent images of children.

He was expelled from Cambodia in 2002, and in March 2006 was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam where he spent two-and-a-half years in prison.

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His sentence for the 2016 convictions expires in February 2031.

Glitter was automatically released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February 2023 after serving half of his fixed-term determinate sentence.

But he was back behind bars weeks later after reportedly trying to access the dark web and images of children.

Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan will play Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in the upcoming Beatles films – with a Stranger Things star also portraying one of the Fab Four.

The two Irish actors will be joined by London-born performers Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.

The cast for the Sam Mendes project was revealed at the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, with all four appearing on stage and taking a bow together in Beatles style.

Mendes is making four interconnected films – one from the perspective of each of the band members – and they are all set to be released “in proximity” to each other in April 2028.

It marks the first time The Beatles and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film.

Playing McCartney is another big role for 29-year-old Mescal, who recently starred in the Gladiator sequel and was nominated for an Oscar in 2023 for Aftersun.

Barry Keoghan – who also got an Oscar nod for The Banshees of Inisherin – will portray the other surviving Beatles member, Ringo Starr.

Meanwhile, Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn, who appeared with long hair as Eddie Munson in the fourth series, takes up the role of George Harrison.

Harris Dickinson has the challenge of stepping into the shoes of perhaps the most famous Beatle, John Lennon.

The 28-year-old recently starred in erotic thriller Babygirl with Nicole Kidman and also appeared in satire Triangle of Sadness.

Mendes told the industry audience at CinemaCon there is “still plenty to explore” despite the Beatles’ rise having being well chronicled.

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The Oscar-winning British director is known for films including American Beauty, First World War movie 1917, and Bond outings Skyfall and Spectre.

Sony Pictures boss Tom Rothman said the close release of all four films in three years’ time will be “the first bingeable theatrical experience”.

“We are going to dominate the culture that month,” he added.

For those who’re on modest means, the cost of the licence fee going up by £5 on 1 April of all days is a bit of a bad joke.

Certainly, for residents at St Crispin Retirement Village, it’s hard to see the funny side.

Among them is 83-year-old Stan Fritton who, since last November, has been embroiled in a battle over how much he and his neighbours should be paying for the BBC.

Their accommodation coming under one roof, they previously paid £7.50 each, qualifying for an accommodation for residential care (ARC) licence.

They then turned a former storage room into one of two spaces for visitors to stay the night and were told by post they’d contravened the TV Licensing Act.

Letters demanding residents pay full price started turning up addressed to almost 100 of the residents.

As Mr Fritton puts it they were “being sent to 95-year-old widows [who are] seeing something that says investigation with a big stamp and what have you… it’s frightened them to death.”

He says demands for payments have even been sent to those with dementia.

“They’re not listening and they’re choosing not to listen,” he says of interactions with TV Licensing.

While Mr Fritton says the retirement village’s managers have now shut the room and will be reapplying to get the licence back, he is adamant they haven’t broken any rules but can’t get an officer to come out to see that the room isn’t a dwelling.

Resignedly his main frustration is that: “They’re choosing to antagonise residents here needlessly.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for TV Licensing said they “continue to liaise with the managers of St Crispin’s… and hope to have this matter resolved as soon as possible.”

Price rises to £174.50

How the BBC collects its money is an issue that extends way beyond one retirement village.

Under the current BBC charter, prices will now rise for the next two years based on inflation. It was £169.50, from today it is now £174.50.

Of course, maybe that’s OK if we’re getting more of what the BBC does best but the corporation’s income is down £1bn a year in real terms compared to its funding in 2010.

Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky recently gave a written statement to parliament on how the second series of his acclaimed drama was very nearly canned because the financing in public service broadcasting is “insufficient to make high-end TV drama”.

‘I think we are in real trouble’

But it’s even a tough time for those public sector broadcasters who rely on advertising – the producer of Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Patrick Spence, telling Sky News he wouldn’t even pitch the drama now in the current commissioning climate.

“I do want to say I think we need to pay the sub postmasters first before we then turn our attention to television – let’s get our priorities right – but yeah I think we are in real trouble – there is a form of British television story telling that is going down if it is not supported.”

While some reports have claimed the government is looking to find a way to put a levy on streaming services, the Department for Culture has previously said they “do not comment on speculation” – not ruling it out.

‘Lots of people are saying it’s a very dated system’

As a former BBC News controller and government communications director, Sir Craig Oliver has seen licence fee negotiations from both sides.

He says: “I think everybody has come to the conclusion, including privately the BBC, that they have to come up with another model.

“I think that there will probably be some element of the licence fee still existing, but it may be that there are subscription models on top of that.

“The problem with all of that, of course, is that the devil is in the detail… how do you make sure that people aren’t hacking in? Lots of people are saying it’s a very dated system.”

This year the BBC says it’s launching its “biggest ever public engagement exercise so audiences can help… shape [the corporation]”.

A BBC spokesperson said: “The public cares about the BBC… We want to continue to reform and evolve and look forward to engaging with government on the next Charter and securing the long-term future of the BBC.”

But with seemingly little or no consensus over how that future might be funded, the only certain thing for now is that it’ll mean households being switched on to licence fee prices going up this year, next year and the one after that.