Nicola McLean says ‘I’d give Gary Glitter a lethal injection before Covid vaccine’ after paedophile gets jab in prison

NICOLA McLean said she'd rather give paedophile Gary Glitter a lethal injection than a coronavirus vaccine after he was jabbed in prison.

The decision to give the 76-year-old sex offender a vaccine has infuriated justice campaigners.

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Jeremy Vine Show panellist Nicola made her feelings on the matter clear on today's programme, telling the host that Glitter was more deserving of death.

She said: "I'd give him a lethal injection before I'd give him a Covid vaccine. I just think it's absolutely ridiculous we're giving a paedophile an injection before prison guards and key workers. I just can't get my head around it. I think we're way too soft on people.

"I just think the crimes against kids, I'm sorry, I don't care if he dies of Covid.

"I think I would like to see him die a slow, painful death. As I'm sure his victims would as well."

But back in the studio, Dr Sarah Jarvis disagreed, using her own career to highlight the problem with selective treatment.

She said: "I've treated people accused of murder. I've treated someone who had just killed a child drinking while drunk without a licence. The child was in one emergency room and I was in the other, A long time ago, but did I dream of not treating them? No.

"If I had. Where do we stop? Do we say 'Ok, you smoke. I'm not going to treat you for lung cancer because you don't deserve it, you brought it on yourself.

"We can't be in a world like that."

Viewers had a mixed response. One wrote on Twitter: "This is to misunderstand the purpose of mass vaccination. We all need to be vaccinated to protect the population from disease. It’s not about the individual."

Another said: "Think Nicola needs to grow up, if he’s had the jab it protects the workforce doesn’t it , plus if he got it it could mean taking up a valuable bed space , so think on woman."

A third posted: "If he gets vaccinated and kept alive, he gets to fulfil the sentence."

Glitter is one of the first lags to get protected from the deadly virus.

He was among a host of ageing sex offenders vaccinated last week at HMP The Verne, right, Portland, Dorset.

Sources said that prisoners were not being prioritised ahead of the general public or jumping the queue.

Sex offenders are likely to be among the first to get the jab as they form a large part of the older prison population.

A source said: “Many have been jailed in recent years for horrific crimes dating back decades. You have some prisons where there’s a significant group of elderly sex offenders all in their 70s and 80s.

“Because of their age, they will get the vaccine first.

“But if you’re a prison officer looking after Glitter and you haven’t had the jab, you’re not going to be happy.”

Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, is serving 16 years for attempted rape, indecent assault and having sex with a child under 13.

David Spencer, Director of the Centre For Crime Prevention, blasted: “There are plenty of key workers and vulnerable people still to receive their jab.

"It is wrong to single out criminals ahead of them. This decision needs an urgent rethink.”

The Covid vaccine rollout in prisons in England began late last month.

Glitter is locked up with 570 other male sex offenders at The Verne — dubbed “luxury Alcatraz” because of its island setting and cushy conditions.

Lags can roam around for more than nine hours a day.

Glitter was first jailed in 1999 for downloading images of child abuse.

He was then caged in Vietnam in 2006 for molesting two girls aged 11 and 12 before being released in 2008.

Glitter was locked up for a third time in 2015 for abusing three young girls.

He was transferred to The Verne in 2018 and may be eligible for parole this year.

The paedo was reportedly blocked from receiving royalties from 2019 movie The Joker, which used his 1972 hit Rock and Roll Part Two.

A government spokesman said: “Prisoners are being vaccinated at the same time as the general public and in line with the priority groups set out by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.”