LONDON: Former glam rocker Gary Glitter has been released on bail after being arrested by police investigating sexual abuse allegations against the late British TV star Jimmy Savile that have plunged the BBC into crisis.

The 1970s pop star will appear before officers in mid-December as part of the investigation police have termed “Savile and others.”

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, is the first person arrested in an investigation which has snowballed since claims that Savile molested underage girls were aired in a television documentary earlier this month.

The king of the glam rock era has served a jail term in Britain for downloading child pornography and in Vietnam for child sex offenses.

Glitter, 68, was seen being escorted from his central London home into a waiting vehicle early on Sunday.

The operation has identified around 300 possible victims of Savile over a 40-year period, which would make the eccentric BBC presenter one of the worst sex offenders in British history.

The claims against Savile have plunged the BBC into crisis and destroyed the reputation of a man who was one of the most famous faces on British television for decades. Savile died on October 29, 2011 aged 84.

The claims against him in an ITV documentary gave dozens of others the courage to come forward to police with allegations about Savile.

The Vatican said on Sunday that it regretted conferring a papal knighthood on Savile in 1990, but that there was no way to revoke the honor.

The Vatican is “deeply saddened” that Savile was made a knight commander of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great by Pope John Paul II, an honor that “in the light of recent information, should certainly not have been conferred,” said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.