Coleen Nolan has revealed how paedophile Jimmy Savile invited her up to his hotel suite when she was just 14, after a Top Of The Pops recording.
Coleen – who was part of pop group The Nolans – speaks about the incident on the upcoming edition of Piers Morgan‘s Life Stories, set to air on Thursday.
Commenting on a clip from Top Of The Pops featuring Savile, the Loose Women presenter, 56, told Piers: ‘You know when it came out about Jimmy Savile I wasn’t in any way shocked, thinking about it.
![Disturbing: Coleen Nolan has revealed how paedophile Jimmy Savile invited her up to his hotel suite when she was just 14, after a Top Of The Pops recording [pictured in 1979]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==)
Disturbing: Coleen Nolan has revealed how paedophile Jimmy Savile invited her up to his hotel suite when she was just 14, after a Top Of The Pops recording [pictured in 1979]
‘I was 14 there and that same night, he asked me to go to his hotel. He said he had a suite in a hotel and I should go up and see it and he’d look after me.
‘Well at the time I just thought you dirty old man. As if I’m going to go up there, I wouldn’t do it anyway. I’ve got four sisters on the stage that would have beaten the crap out of him.’
Savile, who was one of the BBC’s biggest stars, spent decades grooming, molesting and raping children.
It’s feared the predator, who died in 2011 aged 84, had abused up to 1,000 children, with some as young as two years old.
Her story: Coleen – who was part of pop group The Nolans – speaks about the incident on the upcoming edition of Piers Morgan ‘s Life Stories, set to air on Thursday
Commenting on a clip from Top Of The Pops featuring Savile, the Loose Women presenter, 56, told Piers: ‘You know when it came out about Jimmy Savile I wasn’t in any way shocked, thinking about it’ [Savile is pictured in 2006]
Revelations as recent as last month have come out of the woodwork since his death, with the latest involving child trafficking.
Police have launched a probe after a Scottish woman claims she was trafficked to England in the 1980s to be abused by the paedophile TV star.
The woman, from Midlothian, told the Daily Record how she was transported to a Leeds hotel, where Savile subjected her to a vile sex attack.
It was also recently reported that he was still abusing women in 2006 aged 79 when the BBC brought him back to host the last ever Top Of The Pops.
Coleen added: ‘I was 14 there and that same night, he asked me to go to his hotel. He said he had a suite in a hotel and I should go up and see it and he’d look after me’ [pictured in 1982]
Sisters: Coleen’s band The Nolans formed in 1974 and featured Coleen’s sisters Maureen, Bernie and Linda [pictured in 1981]
The ‘monstrous’ entertainer indecently assaulted a woman after filming the episode with presenters Edith Bowman and Reggie Yates, a long-awaited report revealed, as further details of the shamed Jim’ll Fix It star’s heinous crimes were made public at the end of February.
Savile’s horrific reign of abuse dated back to 1959 when he raped a 13-year-old girl, before attacks followed ‘in the corridors, canteens, staircases and dressing rooms of every BBC premises’.
Other vile crimes exposed included the rape of both a virgin teenager in a hotel and a 15-year-old work experience girl he met in the BBC canteen over a cup of tea.
Twenty one of Savile’s female victims were aged 15 or younger, the youngest being eight, while young boys – including an eight-year-old – were also preyed on.
Then and now: Coleen is pictured [L] in 1980 and [R] on Life Stories in 2021
Heinous crimes: Savile molested 72 victims at the BBC and was still abusing women in 2006 when the corporation brought him back to host the last ever Top Of The Pops aged 79 [pictured]
He even had a ‘London Team’ – a group of schoolgirls he treated like his personal harem – who were regularly waved into his dressing room by a BBC receptionist before the filming of Top Of The Pops.
There, one victim said she and others ‘did whatever Savile told them’ before later taking part in the show. Savile arranged for the group to appear on the podium – and in turn on television – but only on the condition that each time he could choose one of the girls to have sex with.
Another of Savile’s victims was a 12-year-old girl from Scotland. She was sexually assaulted in a Top of the Pops dressing room after seeing the DJ rape a 10-year-old boy while still wearing a Womble costume.
Afterwards the presenter put an arm round each of them and told them that what had happened was a ‘secret’.
In another incident he had a 19-year-old girl meet him at a portable corporate hospitality cabin in Shepherds Bush, west London, before forcibly kissing and groping her behind a curtain while smoking a cigar in a smoke-filled room.
Shocking: BBC bosses missed five opportunities to snare ‘King Jimmy’ Savile as he molested 72 victims as young as eight over five decades in every corridor he worked, a long-awaited report revealed
When she ran out and complained to Savile’s radio producer Ted Beston the victim ‘was treated as if she was being silly’, the report by retired judge Dame Janet Smith found.
It also emerged BBC bosses missed five opportunities to snare the ‘untouchable’ star as he molested victims over a period of five decades.
Savile struck at the BBC Theatre at Shepherd’s Bush, where Jim’ll Fix It and Clunk Click were filmed, Television Centre where Top Of The Pops was filmed, and Broadcasting House.
If staff did dare try and report him they were told ‘keep your mouth shut, he is a VIP’, the review found, while a parallel inquiry into paedophile Stuart Hall revealed BBC bosses were aware – or should have been – that the It’s a Knockout presenter was abusing girls.
Despite the revelations, Dame Janet controversially said the corporation’s failure to stop Savile and Hall was not the fault of senior managers.
It also emerged rumours were abound that Savile owned a caravan he used to drive around and carry out depraved sexual assaults, while the studios where he presented Top of the Pops were said to resemble scenes from a Carry On film.
With the set awash with young girls, staff locked doors and even cupboards to their offices and hospitality rooms amid rumours of what the DJ got up to away from the cameras, one of the BBC’s ex-editors said.
The ex-husband of presenter Anne Diamond, Mike Hollingsworth, added: ‘I recall Savile owning a Winnebago, which he used for the occasional stopovers in London.
‘There were rumours, of course, about what he used it for but because he was a loner, no one ever seemed to actually see if anything untoward was happening.’
Despite senior management claiming to have no idea about Jimmy Savile’s paedophilia, rumours that he liked young girls were rife among some of the top stars at the BBC, it also emerged.
From Lord Michael Grade to Dame Esther Rantzen, Chinese whispers had travelled.
There were stories of him licking a young girl’s hand, jokes about him ‘screwing minors’ and that he was a necrophiliac, but they were never investigated at the time.
Dame Janet’s long-awaited review found there was a culture of ‘reverence and fear’ towards celebrities at the corporation and that ‘an atmosphere of fear still exists today in the BBC’.
When a junior female employee at Television Centre complained to her supervisor that she had been sexually assaulted by Savile, she was told ‘keep your mouth shut, he is a VIP’, the report found.
Dame Janet said girls who dared to complain about being sexually assaulted were regarded as ‘a nuisance’ and their claims not properly dealt with.
Health: Coleen also revealed she is looking into having a double mastectomy after her sisters Anne and Linda were diagnosed with cancer last year
Eight complaints about Savile’s behaviour were made to BBC staff as early as the late 1960s, but each time they were brushed off or not escalated up the chain of command.
In late 1989 or early 1990 Savile stuck his hand up a female junior employee’s skirt at Television Centre. The woman, referred to as C51, complained to her boss but was told ‘keep your mouth shut, he is a VIP’.
More than a decade earlier, in November 1976, Savile was in front of the rolling cameras presenting Top of the Pops when he put his hand under the bottom of a member of the audience next to him.
She leapt into the air and later complained to a BBC employee, but her accusation was shrugged off and she was told it was ‘just Jimmy Savile mucking about’.
Findings: Dame Janet found that no senior manager at the BBC ‘ever found out about any specific complaint relating to Savile’s inappropriate sexual conduct in connection with his work for the BBC’
In the mid-1970s Ian Hampton, bass player with the pop group Sparks, also tried to raise the alarm. He had heard rumours that Savile had sex with under-age girls and spotted him leaving the Top of the Pops studio with a young girl.
The guitarist alerted a BBC presenter, but was told ‘not to be silly’, while on another occasion he spoke to producer Robin Nash, but was told ‘not to be ridiculous’.
Dame Janet said there was a culture of not reporting complaints at the BBC from the 1970s right the way through to the 1990s, and a fear of saying anything that might ‘rock the boat’.
She warned there was a particular fear of whistleblowing at the corporation and ‘I was told that an atmosphere of fear still exists today in the BBC’.
Rubbing shoulders with royalty: Savile also met Prince Charles on a number of occasions during his career
She added: ‘As I have said, there was a culture of not complaining about anything. The culture of not complaining about a member of the Talent was even stronger.
‘Members of the Talent, such as Savile, were to a real degree protected from complaint.
‘The first reason for this is because of a deference or even adulation which was, and still can be, accorded to celebrity in our society.
‘The second reason was because of the attitude within the BBC toward the Talent. The evidence I heard suggested that the Talent was treated with kid gloves and rarely challenged.’
She added: ‘There was a feeling of reverence for them and a fear that, if a star were crossed, he or she might leave the BBC.’
Horrific: Claire McAlpine, pictured left, with Savile on Top Of The Pops in 1971. She took her own life after she claimed she had been abused by BBC stars and had written a diary about her ordeal
Coleen’s band The Nolans formed in 1974 and featured Coleen’s sisters Maureen, Anne, Linda, Bernie and Denise.
In her sit-down Piers, she also talks about how her family has been ‘cursed’ with cancer, revealing she is looking into having a double mastectomy after her sisters Anne and Linda were diagnosed with cancer last year.
Coleen’s sister Linda, 62, has secondary cancer which has spread from her hip to her liver, while their other sibling Anne, 71, completed treatment for breast cancer in November.
All smiles: Tony Brandon (far left) with (from left to right) Jimmy Saville, Tony Blackburn and Terry Wogan receiving their top DJ awards from the Reveille Newspaper
Bernie Nolan was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010. She died in July 2013, aged 52.
The presenter said a hereditary gene in the family means there is an ‘incredibly high’ chance she could develop cancer.
According to The Mirror, she tells Piers: ‘I’m seriously looking into elective mastectomy. I’ve spoken to a specialist so far to see.
‘I’ve said, “look what are my chances of this” and he said, “incredibly high” and although we don’t carry the gene – the known gene BRCA1 and BRCA2 – he said it will be gene related somewhere, it will just be a gene we haven’t found.’
Genetic: Coleen sisters Linda (left) has secondary cancer, while Anne (right) was diagnosed with breast cancer last year
During the interview, Coleen tears up as Piers shows her a clip where Linda admits she is scared of dying.
Coleen says: ‘She’s always strong and is always positive. That’s the first I’ve heard her say that, that she’s scared of dying and doesn’t want to die.’
Coleen went on to say how Linda has scans every three months and the last time she went, doctors told her that her cancer has spread from her hip to her liver.
The Loose Women star said cancer feels ‘like a curse’ on the family.
Bernie underwent chemotherapy and a mastectomy and announced in February 2012 that she was cancer-free.
However, months later she shared the heartbreaking news that her cancer had spread to her brain, lungs, liver and bones. She died in July 2013.
Brave: Coleen went on to say how Linda has scans every three months and the last time she went, doctors told her that her cancer had spread from her hip to her liver (pictured last year)
Siblings Linda and Anne began chemotherapy at Blackpool’s Victoria Hospital last July.
They received news of their shock diagnoses within days of each other, shortly after the sisters returned from filming a series of The Nolans Go Cruising in March.
After the sisters received their heartbreaking diagnoses, Maureen moved in with Anne and Linda relocated to her sister Denise’s Blackpool home.
Anne’s diagnosis came 20 years after she was first diagnosed with the disease in 2000.
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Back in December, the singer said her cancer has ‘disappeared’ after undergoing a course of chemotherapy.
Sisters: Coleen says of Linda: ‘She’s always strong and is always positive. That’s the first I’ve heard her say that, that she’s scared of dying and doesn’t want to die’ (pictured in 2017)
She said: ‘My cancer has disappeared basically. I’m still having treatment to go forward but it’s more or less gone, yeah. It’s amazing.’
Sister Linda who appeared on the show remotely from her Blackpool home, revealed she too was optimistic about the future after successfully completing treatment in September.
She said: It’s not curable, so I will be on medication possibly for the rest of my life, but as long as it works that’s fine. It’s hard not to be positive with this lot around because they’re all full of it, so it’s great, we’ve had such a great time spending time together.’
Piers Morgan’s Life Stories airs on Thursday at 9pm on ITV.
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and affects more than two MILLION women a year
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what causes it and how can it be treated?
What is breast cancer?
Breast cancer develops from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.
When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding breast tissue it is called an ‘invasive’ breast cancer. Some people are diagnosed with ‘carcinoma in situ’, where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule.
Most cases develop in women over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men though this is rare.
Staging means how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.
The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast growing. High grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated.
What causes breast cancer?
A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply ‘out of control’.
Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance of developing breast cancer, such as genetics.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most breast lumps are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign.
The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.
How is breast cancer diagnosed?
- Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammography, a special x-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumours.
- Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under the microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer.
If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest x-ray.
How is breast cancer treated?
Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used.
- Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour.
- Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focussed on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops cancer cells from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.
- Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying
- Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the ‘female’ hormone oestrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer.
How successful is treatment?
The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure.
The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 70 mean more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
For more information visit breastcancercare.org.uk, breastcancernow.org or www.cancerhelp.org.uk
