The Next High Profile Paedo?

Coronation Street star Michael Le Vell was last night charged with child sex offences.

The 48-year-old, who plays Kevin Webster, is accused of 19 offences including raping a child, indecently assaulting a child and sexual activity with a child.

The actor, who lives in Hale, Cheshire, was first arrested in September 2011 and questioned over alleged child sex offences, but the matter was later dropped.

However, late last night Greater Manchester Police said the actor - real name Michael Turner - had been charged with sex offences against a youngster.

The decision came after a review of evidence by lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service

Alison Levitt QC, Principal Legal Advisor to the Director of Public Prosecutions said: "I have very carefully reviewed the evidence in this case and I have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to charge Michael Robert Turner with a number of sexual offences.

“I have authorised Greater Manchester Police to charge Mr Turner with nineteen offences, including rape of a child."

A spokeswoman from GMP said: "A man has been charged with 19 child sex offences.

"Michael Turner has been charged with 19 offences including raping a child, indecently assaulting a child and sexual activity with a child.

"The charges, which were authorised by the CPS following a review of evidence, relate to offences against a child between 2001 and 2010."

Le Vell joined the soap in 1983 and quickly endeared himself to fans who have followed the trials and tribulations of Kevin.

His character has had a stormy marriage to Sally, played by Sally Dynevor, fathering two teenage girls as well as a love child from his affair with Molly Dobbs.

Le Vell is due to appear at Manchester magistrates' court on February 27.

What a shit name

Sir Bobby.

How dare you.

Long-serving Coronation Street star Bill Roache has been arrested over a rape allegation.
The actor, 81, who has played Ken Barlow in the TV soap since its launch, was held at his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, this morning.
He is to be questioned over an allegation of raping an underage girl in Lancashire between April and July 1967.
It is understood Mr Roache, the world's longest-serving soap actor, will not appear in the ITV show while investigations continue.
His arrest comes little over a month after he appeared to suggest sex abuse victims were being punished for sins in a past life.
Mr Roache collected an award from Guinness World Records in 2010 for his lengthy service, having joined in 1960, appearing regularly ever since.
A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: "An 81-year-old man from Wilmslow in Cheshire has this morning, Wednesday May 1 2013, been arrested by Lancashire Constabulary on suspicion of rape.
"The man will be interviewed at a police station in Lancashire during the course of the day.
"We take all allegations of sexual abuse extremely seriously and would encourage people with any information about sexual abuse, or anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse, to come forward and report their concerns confident in the knowledge they will be investigated appropriately and with sensitivity."
An ITV spokeswoman said the broadcaster was not in a position to comment.
In March, Mr 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."
He also called for anonymity for those accused of child sex offences because of the stigma they faced even if innocent.
Mr Roache later issued a statement saying he was "sorry for any offence that has been caused as a result of my comments".
His comments were condemned by abuse charities.
In a TV interview last year Mr Roache said he had slept with up to 1,000 women.
In the interview with Piers Morgan he told of his regrets at regularly cheating on his first wife Anna.
The couple divorced in 1974 and his second wife Sara died in 2009.

What the hell do the alleged victims stand to gain then?

What the hell do the alleged victims stand to gain then?

No idea.

It just seems completely implausible that every single victim kept it bottled up until the Jimmy Saville story broke, that no one made an allegation and now apparently every celebrity of a certain age was a pedophile. I find it far more likely that a few of them are telling porkies than there was such a massive, undiscovered pedophile 'ring' in television that has only been discovered now.

EDIT: I guess what I'm saying is that arrests and accusations alone don't make someone a pedophile, lets wait until court cases come out and we get some facts emerging.

More Bill Roache news. The police believe they have sufficient evidence to charge him on two counts of rape.