Simon Cowell has defended Britain's Got Talent contestant Paddy Jones after it was revealed that she had already won a Spanish TV show with her act.

The salsa dancing 80-year-old and her partner Nico Espinosa wowed the judges and audience with their routine and were Amanda Holden's "golden buzzer" pick to go straight through to the live shows.

But when criticisms started to come in that Paddy had already been a winner of a similar show, Tu Si Que Vales in Spain in 2009, Simon stuck up for her on Twitter.

He wrote: "Age is nothing but a number! @GotTalent," with a link to a clip of Paddy and Nico's audition.

Simon continued: "Don't knock Paddy for performing on a Spanish talent show. She is British and wants the chance to perform in front of our royal family

"She is 80 years old. Let her have that chance. You the viewers will decide."

Paddy also spoke to This Morning about being the first act to get a golden buzzer nod: "It was really special. To be the first act to get it was really really super."

Simon had originally buzzed her act before it got going which he later apologised for, but Paddy said it hadn't affected her: "I didn't see very much because Nico was moving me around. It wasn't like I was stood there and could see the audience and get nervous - I was just going around like a whirling dervish!"

She continued: "I was a trained ballet dancer and used to do local pantomime, but I gave it up when I was 22 when I got married.

"With a husband and four children there was no time for dancing - but when this came up I checked with the kids and they said this is what dad would have wanted. But I didn't expect that."