UK school exam board drops Gary Glitter song

LONDON (Reuters) - England's biggest exam board has withdrawn a music paper after criticism that its coursework featured a song by disgraced British pop singer Gary Glitter.

The song "I'm the leader of the gang (I am)" by Glitter, who spent three years in a Vietnamese jail for child sex abuse, was included in the suggested listening list for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) GCSE music exam taken by high school students.

But after condemnation from teaching unions and media, the AQA said it had taken action to remove it.

"AQA regrets any offence that the inclusion of a song by Gary Glitter in the 'suggested listening' section of this paper may have caused," the AQA said in a statement.

"We are writing to all our centers to recall the paper and issue replacements with reference to the song removed."

Glitter, 64, who enjoyed a string of hits in the 1970s and 80s, returned to Britain in August following his release from prison.

He had left the country after being convicted in 1999 of downloading thousands of images of child pornography onto his personal computer and was then convicted in Vietnam in 2005 of sexually abusing two young girls.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Steve Addison)