FIVE weeks after he was charged with raping a schoolgirl, Bill Roache will appear in court tomorrow (Friday) over a string of new sex allegations. The 81-year-old Corrie actor was charged today with five indecent assaults on girls aged between 11 and 16. The claims relate to four alleged victims. Three attacks were allegedly carried out in 1965 and two in 1968. Roache was arrested and charged after reporting by appointment to a police station in Lancashire today. He was bailed and ordered to appear before magistrates in Preston tomorrow.
The accusations were made after Roache, who has played Ken Barlow in Corrie for 53 years, had been charged in May with two counts of raping a 15-year-old girl.
Roache has vehemently denied those allegations, and said they left him feeling “astounded and deeply horrified”.
Speaking about the five new charges that were brought today, Nazir Afzal, chief crown prosecutor for the North West, said: “We have carefully considered all the evidence gathered by Lancashire police in relation to recent allegations from four complainants that William Roache indecently assaulted them in the 1960s.“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 five offences of indecent assault relating to four girls who were aged between 11 or 12 and 16 at the time of the alleged offences.
“We have been reviewing evidence and providing early investigative advice to Lancashire police regarding these allegations, which were made to police after Mr Roache was charged on May 1, 2013 with two offences of rape.
“This decision was taken in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and our guidance for prosecutors on sexual offences. Mr Roache has a right to a fair trial and it is therefore very important that nothing is said, or reported, which could prejudice that trial. For these reasons, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further.”
The alleged attacks were carried out in the Manchester area.
The CPS said Roache was charged today with two assaults on a girl who was 14 at the time of the alleged attack in 1965.
t also claimed that Roache assaulted a 16-year-old girl in the same year.
A girl of 13 or 14 was allegedly attacked in 1968. This was the same year the girl of 11 or 12 was also allegedly assaulted.
Roache appeared at the magistrates court on May 14 in relation to the rape charges, and was bailed to reappear at Preston crown court on Monday for a preliminary hearing.
The alleged rapes took place in 1967. Roache was arrested at his £750,000 house in Wilmslow, Cheshire, on May 1 following a two-month investigation.
The star has not appeared on TV screens since he was first charged. Bosses at Granada TV, which produces Coronation Street, have said he would not be featured on the show “until legal proceedings are concluded”. Roache has played Ken from the very first episode of the series and is the longest serving soap actor in TV history. The veteran actor is a member of the Pure Love Movement.
He ended his two-year romance with TV weather-girl Emma Jesson, 44, to concentrate on his “spiritual path”. She revealed four months ago that the couple had split after Roache decided to “explore a mystic message of love”. Last year the actor hit the headlines for claiming he had slept with more than 1,000 women during his younger days. Roache, who has five children, has been married twice. His second wife died from a heart condition in 2009.
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I swear this is like the 3rd actor from Coronation Street to get arrested on rape charges