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The jury in the rape and indecent assault trial of Coronation Street star William Roache has retired to consider its verdicts. Roache, 81, who plays Ken Barlow in the ITV soap, is accused of
using his fame and popularity to exploit five youngsters between the mid-60s and early 70s. His trial at Preston crown court, now in its fourth week, has heard from five women who claim he
sexually assaulted them when they were 16 or under, either at Granada Studios in Manchester, in his car or at properties he owned. In denying all the offences, Roache said he did not even
know any of his accusers and had never had a sexual interest in underage girls. The prosecution says the actor was "sticking to his script" in lying and if he was telling the
truth, he was the victim of a "huge, distorted and perverse witch-hunt" . Anne Whyte QC depicted Roache as a young man with "looks, fame and appetite" at the relevant
time, which gave him the "motivation and the opportunity to behave improperly". She said his fame "put him out of reach" with his belief that none of the women would be
brave enough to report him. Decades of silence followed but times had changed now, she told the jury of eight women and four men. Apart from two of the complainants – who were sisters –
there was no evidence to suggest any of the women who had come forward with similar allegations had known each other. Louise Blackwell QC, defending, said the case against her client was
"nonsense", with the trial haunted by the "spectre" of Jimmy Savile. She went through each of the accounts of the complainants to point out "contradictions and
inconsistencies". Glowing testimonies about Roache's "caring" and "lovely" nature were given in evidence by three of his Coronation Street co-stars, including
Anne Kirkbride, who plays his on-screen wife Deirdre. Blackwell said it was nonsense to assert that Roache departed from his usual character and behaviour to become a sexual
"risk-taker" between the mid-60s and early 70s. The barrister suggested to the jury that fair investigations did not take place into allegations of such nature against a celebrity
in the "post-Savile crisis of conscience". Roache, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, is accused of two counts of rape and four counts of indecent assault on various dates between 1965 and
1972. He is said to have raped one of the complainants at his then bungalow in Lancashire when she was a virgin and raped her again in an adjoining cottage he owned. Three of the indecent
assaults were said to have taken place inside Granada Studios – in the gents toilets, the ladies toilets and a dressing room – while the fourth is alleged to have happened in his Rolls-Royce
when he was said to have given a lift home to a complainant.