Corrie actor Roache ‘assaulted girl in men’s toilet’

The woman, the first witness in the case against Mr Roache at Preston crown court, said she had visited Granada studios in Manchester with a friend in 1965 to take part in a children’s talent show.

She said she met William Roache and another actor in a dressing room at the studios before he pulled her into the men’s toilets and made her perform a sex act on him.

She said she and her friend were “like two excited teenagers … just excited to be in the company of a couple of famous actors, flattered, I suppose, that they were actually talking to us and interested in what we were doing”.

At one point Mr Roache, who plays Ken Barlow in the ITV soap, left the dressing room, pulling her “roughly” by the arm in the direction of the men’s toilets, the court heard.

‘I should not have been in there’

She said: “I was taken aback. I wasn’t quite sure why I was in there. I should not have been in there.” She said the next thing she remembered was him placing his hand over his genitals. The woman said she did not appreciate what was happening.

“My main worry was that I was in the gents’ toilets. I was the one in the wrong place. I was shocked and I didn’t really understand what was going on, but the one thing I thoroughly understood was that I should not have been in the gents’.”

She said she could not remember how they left the toilets, but her “paramount feeling was to get out of there”. She added that she also had the impression Mr Roache had kissed her on the lips in the toilets.

She did not tell her friend about the incident, the jury heard, because she was “frightened”.

The court was told that Mr Roache had asked her how he could contact her and she left her address on the dressing room table.

‘I was bewildered’

She said: “I think I was a little bit on auto-pilot. I was just following instructions at that point. I was just bewildered at what had happened.”

She told the court that weeks later she received a letter and signed photograph from the actor, which allegedly said: “Dear (the alleged victim), thank you for your marvellous letter and the nice things you said in it. I am enclosing a photo which I hope you like.

“I am away for three weeks now, but I would like a letter from you waiting for me when I get back. Write to me when you start school again and tell me more. Love Bill xx.” The photo was signed: “Love to (the alleged victim)! William Roache (Ken Barlow).”

Prosecutor Anne Whyte asked her how she felt when she received the letter. She said: “I suppose I was flattered at the attention.I didn’t understand some of it. I had not written a letter. I left a note as well as my address.The ‘tell me more’ didn’t make sense. I don’t know what it referred to.”

Alleged William Roache victim giving evidence about visit to Granada Studios aged 14 where she claims Roache pulled her into the gents..

— Ciaran Jenkins (@C4Ciaran) January 15, 2014

Asked why she came forward about Roache woman says “I felt I had information to comfirm his inclination was towards young girls.”

— Ciaran Jenkins (@C4Ciaran) January 15, 2014

The court heard that she returned to the studios later that year and Mr Roache picked her up in his car. He asked her about her age, the jury was told, and when she would turn 16.

He then allegedly asked her if she had “ever had it in the mouth”, but she would not have understood him because “I had no concept of oral sex at all”.

She said she thought that she had also been indecently assaulted in his car, but she had “no actual memory” of the episode.

Louise Blackwell QC, defending Mr Roache, asked her to confirm that after the “digusting act” in the toilets she had decided to leave him her address, to which she replied: “Yes.”

‘Alarming lapses’

She was then questioned about the second alleged assault and said she could not remember details about Mr Roache’s car or the journey they had taken.

Miss Blackwell said: “Would you agree, you have some very alarming lapses in your memory about these events?” “No, I don’t agree,” the woman replied. “I think it would be strange if I remembered every detail of 50 years ago. I remember the unusual things that stand out in my mind, the unique things.”

Miss Blackwell continued: “The other alternative is, it’s just not true?” “It is true, I’m telling the truth,” the witness said.

Miss Blackwell added: “The lapses of memory are because you are making it up?” She answered: “I’m not making it up. I would have no reason to.”

‘Stardom’

The actor, who has played Ken Barlow for more than half a century, is alleged to have taken “full advantage of his stardom” to sexually abuse five young girls.

His fame and popularity were said to have silenced his “star-struck” victims for decades until the Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall scandals emerged, the jury has been told.

William Roache, 81, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, denies two counts of raping a 15-year-old girl in east Lancashire in 1967 and five indecent assaults involving four other girls, allegedly committed in the Manchester area between 1965 and 1971.