Photograph by PAS
The trial of Coronation Street veteran Willian Roache begins today at Preston Crown Court, with the star accused of historic sex offences against five girls.
Roache, 81, has been charged with two counts of raping a 15-year-old girl in East Lancashire in 1967, and with five counts of indecent assault involving four girls aged between 11 and 16 in the Manchester area between 1965 and 1968.
Roache denies the accusations and has pleaded not guilty to all charges, saying in a statement:
I strenuously deny the allegations and will now focus my full attention on fighting to preserve my innocence in the challenging times ahead.
I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all those people who have offered me their support and good wishes at this difficult time.
Roache has not appeared in Coronation Street since proceedings started, and has been on bail since May with the condition that he has no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 16.
The trial is scheduled to last up to four weeks.
