Corrie’s Bill Roache to be prosecuted

Coronation Street actor Bill Roache has been arrested on suspicion of an historic allegation of a sexual assault

The actor, who has played Ken Barlow in the TV soap for decades, was held at his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, this morning.

Having been questioned by police throughout the day, the Crown Prosecution Service tonight announced that Roache, 81, had been charged with two counts of raping a 15-year-old girl in Lancashire between April and July 1967.

Nazir Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West, said: “We have carefully considered all the evidence gathered by Lancashire Police in relation to William Roache following allegations of rape.

“We have been reviewing evidence and providing early investigative advice to Lancashire Police since 1 March 2013.

“Having completed our review, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Roache to be charged with two offences of rape relating to a girl, aged 15, in 1967.”

Roache will appear at Preston Magistrates’ Court on May 14.

An ITV spokeswoman said earlier the broadcaster was not in a position to comment, but it is understood Roache will not appear in the long-running soap while investigations continue.

In March Roache issued an apology after he appeared to suggest sex abuse victims were being punished for past sins.

The actor was interviewed for a New Zealand news programme and said the public should not be judgmental but be “totally forgiving” of people who had committed child sex crimes.

He told the programme: “If you accept that you are pure love, and if you know that you are pure love and therefore live that pure love, these things won’t happen to you.”

Asked to clarify whether that meant victims brought the abuse on themselves, he said: “No, not quite, but and yet I am, because everything that happens to us has been a result of what we have been in previous lives or whatever.”

He also called for anonymity for those accused of child sex offences because of the stigma they faced even if innocent.

Roache later issued a statement saying he was “sorry for any offence that has been caused as a result of my comments”.

His comments were condemned by abuse charities.