Photo: Splash News

The personal Twitter account claiming to belong to convicted paedophile Gary Glitter has been revealed to be fake.

The 'Twitter account', that had sent nearly 200 tweets and gained over 6000 followers, sparked outrage amongst the public last week. The man behind 'fake account' has now admitted that he set it up as a "social experiment".

He wrote on his Tumblr page Glitterontwitter.tumblr.com:

Let me say that this account does not belong to convicted paedophile Gary Glitter. I am deeply disgusted by what Gary Glitter has done in his life and am not condoning, making light of or glorifying child abuse. His crimes are unforgivable and chilling.

He added: "I set this twitter account up as a social experiment to highlight the dangers and safety of children using the social networking sites and to discover and question public morality. It's been an interesting and eye-opening experience for me."

Glitter was convicted of possession of child pornography in the United Kingdom in 1999, after pleading guilty to 54 offences of making indecent photographs of children.

He was also jailed in March 2006 for molesting two girls aged eleven and twelve.