Bill Roache cleared of rape and indecent assault

The 81-year-old actor stood upright in the dock as the not guilty verdicts were read out by the jury foreman. Mr Roache’s grown-up children, who had accompanied him to court throughout the trial, were moved to tears in the public gallery.

The jury of eight women and four men took less than six hours to reach its conclusion.

Speaking outside court, with several members of the jury watching, Mr Roache said: “In these situations there are no winners and I think we should all be much kinder to ourselves. Now, if you will excuse me, I would like to get back to work.”

In these situations there are no winners and I think we should all be much kinder to ourselves.

The court had heard allegations of historic abuse from five women who claimed Mr Roache had sexually assaulted them when they were 16 or under, either at Granada Studios in Manchester, where Coronation Street is filmed, or in his car, or at properties he owned on various dates between 1965 and 1972.

Mr Roache denied all the charges, saying he did not even know any of his accusers and had hever had a sexual interest in underage girls.

Character support

Fellow stars from Coronation Street gave glowing character testimonies.

When asked in court what word she would use to describe William Roache, Anne Kirkbride, who plays his on-screen wife Deidre Barlow, replied: “Lovely.” Ms Kirkbride said she had never seen anything worrying about Roache’s behaviour on set with young women from when she joined the show in about 1972.

Speaking to the jury before their deliberations, the trial judge Mr Justice Holroyde said: “The defence argued it ‘simply cannot be right’ that the defendant committed the offences, then stopped and not only did nothing wrong for 40 years but also ‘attracted the sort of character evidence you heard from witnesses.'”

In a statement, Lancashire Constabulary said: “These very serious allegations were thoroughly and professionally investigated by a team of specialist detectives.”

“Lancashire Constabulary worked closely with the Crown Prosecution Service from an early stage, and all the evidence was subjected to careful scrutiny before a decision was taken to charge, in the belief that there was sufficient evidence to justify a realistic prospect of conviction… We entirely respect the verdict reached by the jury today. The burden of proof in our system is quite rightly very high and we thank them for considering this matter so carefully.

“The constabulary remain committed to investigating allegations of this nature, no matter how historic, and would encourage anyone who has been a victim of a sexual offence to come forward safe in the knowledge that they will be treated sensitively and professionally.”