Sunday, 9 March 2008

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Anne Nolan: My dad sexually abused me

Father of 70s singing sensation The Nolans had hidden dark side

The Nolans' I'm In The Mood For Dancing is a must-have 70s hit for any wedding reception.

But the Irish family who topped the charts have been living with a horrendous secret.

In 2001, Anne Nolan, 57 - the 2nd eldest of 6 daughters and 2 sons - told her siblings that their late father Tommy sexually abused her from the age of 11.

'They just sat there open-mouthed - they couldn't believe what they were hearing,' Anne tells the Mail On Sunday. 'Incomprehension gradually gave way to anger.'

Now Anne has written about the abuse in her shocking and disturbing autobiography, Anne's Song.

'Dad pulled me towards him and sat me on his knee,' she bravely recalls. 'He started stroking my hair with one hand and put his other hand between my legs. He said he wanted to do something nice for me.

'I trusted him. Maybe this was something dads did with their daughters.

'Somewhere deep in my subconscious was the realisation that something was wrong.'

Incredibly, later Anne says her father even suggested they run away together and live as man and wife.

When Tommy Nolan died in 1998 at the age of 72, Anne felt nothing. Three years later, on a family holiday in Floria, she explained why to sisters Denise, Maureen and Bernie.

'It was a tremendous relief to unburden myself,' she says. 'I'm convinced Mum knew nothing about it.'