Corrie star Bill Roache held over rape claim
Coronation Street star Bill Roache has been arrested on suspicion of raping a 15-year-old girl in 1967.
Coronation Street star Bill Roache has been arrested on suspicion of raping a 15-year-old girl in 1967.
Coronation Street actor Bill Roache has apologised after claiming that victims of sexual abuse bring it upon themselves.
Bill Roache has celebrated his 80th birthday with a party on the set of the ITV1 show that has been his home for more than half a century.
Shortly before 4pm, officers at Bill Roache's home could be seen placing brown paper evidence bags inside an unmarked police car, which left the address shortly afterwards.
It was followed by two more unmarked police cars, each with three plain clothes officers inside.
Long-serving Coronation Street star Bill Roache has been arrested over a rape allegation.
The 81-year-old actor, who has played Ken Barlow in the TV soap since its launch, was held at his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, this morning.
ITV News Reporter Sejal Karia reports:
Bill Roache is being questioned about two allegations from one person who was a 15-year-old girl in 1967.
Coronation Street will edit out a couple of scenes from Friday's programme that include Bill Roache. He is still being questioned by police.
Two police officers were stationed outside the wrought iron gates at the end of the drive to Roache's £650,000 home, shielded by bushes from the road in Wilmslow.
A growing press pack of TV cameras, photographers and reporters gathered outside the property.
In March Bill Roache issued an apology after he appeared to suggest sex abuse victims were being punished for past sins.
The actor was interviewed for a New Zealand news programme and said the public should not be judgmental but be "totally forgiving" of people who had committed child sex crimes.
He told the programme: "If you accept that you are pure love, and if you know that you are pure love and therefore live that pure love, these things won't happen to you."
Asked to clarify whether that meant victims brought the abuse on themselves, he said: "No, not quite, but and yet I am, because everything that happens to us has been a result of what we have been in previous lives or whatever."
Roache later said he was "sorry for any offence that has been caused as a result of my comments".
– ITV spokeswomanGiven that a police investigation is underway it would not be appropriate for us to comment.
Coronation Street star Bill Roache has been arrested on suspicion of raping a 15-year-old girl in 1967.
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