Ex-newspaper boss Eddie Shah in court accused of seven counts of rape

Shah, 68, was arrested last September with four other people in relation to allegations of sex with a minor. He appeared before a district judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court yesterday accused of seven counts of rape of a female under the age of 16, and two counts of gross indecency with a girl under 14, court staff confirmed. Shah, from Chippenham, Wiltshire, was charged last month with two other people over the alleged sex offences, said to have happened in the 1990s, against the same girl, then aged between 12 and 15.

Shah founded the now-defunct Today newspaper in 1986. A local publisher before that, he confronted the unions at his Warrington print works and Manchester news offices.

Court staff said Anthony Pallant, of West Malling, Kent, is charged with two counts of rape of a female under the age of 16, one count of indecent assault on a girl under 14 and four counts of gross indecency with a girl under 16.

Susan Davies, 52, from Kent, is accused of one count of indecent assault, six counts of gross indecency with a child and seven counts of aiding and abetting the rape of a female under the age of 16. All three were bailed to appear at the Old Bailey on October 4