Ex-newspaper tycoon Eddie Shah in court on rape charge

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 today 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.

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, whose real name is Selim Shah, founded the now-defunct Today newspaper in 1986.

A local publisher before that, he confronted the trade unions at his Warrington print works and Manchester news offices and became the first person to invoke Margaret Thatcher’s anti-union laws to force unions to the bargaining table.

According to his website, he has now moved into the property and leisure building business with wife Jennifer.

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, court staff said.

All three were bailed to appear at the Old Bailey on October 4.