Savile 'made rape bid at hospital'

Fresh claims have emerged that Jimmy Savile tried to rape a woman while on a hospital visit and told her "just think of me as good old uncle Jim".

Debbie Curtis, then an aspiring model, alleged that the disgraced presenter sexually assaulted her at his room in the nurses' quarters at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire.

She gave her account as Leeds General Infirmary denied claims by former porter Terry Pratt that the late Jim'll Fix It star was frequently handed a key to the nurses' accommodation building at Leeds General Infirmary during the late 1980s.

But it admitted that Savile did have an office on the site for 10 years because of his fundraising work.

Speaking to ITV News, Ms Curtis said that Savile invited her to his room for a coffee during a visit to see spinal patients when she was aged 22. She claimed he groped her and blocked the door to the room despite her protests, and that she was forced to knee him in the groin to escape.

Ms Curtis said: "I think I was more shocked that he'd tried to force himself on me when I'd said no. And that's my biggest reason for doing this interview - I think that no should mean no.

"He was saying 'you're a very naughty girl'. He always wanted me to call him uncle Jim, things like that; that in itself, even at that age, was something I was not going to be doing. He always used to say 'just think of me as good old uncle Jim who'll do anything for you.'"

Savile also bragged to her that nurses would come into his room at night. He told her: "It's very good living in the nurses' quarters because they would often get in my bed at night and come and see me".

Former Director of Nursing and Patient Care at Stoke Mandeville, Christine McFarlane, also told ITV he was given too much freedom and staff feared he would stop fundraising if they angered him.

She told ITV: "Jimmy walked through the doors, everywhere, and because he was Jimmy Savile, nobody argued with him."