Following his arrest yesterday, Coronation Street actor William Roache has been charged with two offences of rape.
The offences are alleged to have been committed in Haslingden between April and July 1967 and involved a 15-year-old girl, a statement from Lancashire Police said.
The 81-year-old, who has played Ken Barlow in the ITV1 soap since it began in 1960, was questioned at a police station in Lancashire throughout yesterday.
ITV yesterday confirmed that Roache will not be appearing on the show while investigations continue.
In March, he issued an apology after he said the public should be ‘totally forgiving’ of people who had committed child sex crimes, during an interview with a New Zealand news programme.
Speaking to ITV after the furore, he said: “I would never say that victims of sexual offences are responsible for the abuse they have suffered, and I apologise most profusely if I have been misunderstood in this way.
“I offer my utmost sympathies to anyone who has been affected by sexual offences or paedophilia.”
Roache, of Meadow Way, Wilmslow, Cheshire, has been bailed and will appear before Magistrates in Preston on May 14.
Image courtesy of ITV video player, with thanks.
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