Bill Roache Of Coronation Street Charged With Two Counts Of Rape.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2317606/Bill-Roache-Coronation-Streets-Ken-Barlow-charged-counts-rape.html

Yet another celebrity charged with sexual offences, the question I wish to ask is, what possible evidence could have been brought forward after all these years for the CPS to instruct the police to charge Bill Roache (in this particular case) with rape, surely rape is a hard enough offence to prove when it allegedly takes place at the time, never mind after 46 years ago?

[jackthehat]

Except we're not dealing with 'young lads' in this instance, are we?

[Baldric]

///Roache once boasted he had bedded 1,000 women///

Now, I wonder how many..............?

[jno]

jeanijay, if something like this happened to you when you were nine, yes, do report it.

[Barmaid]

Nor are we dealing with an extra pair of hands. The charges are rape for goodness sake.

[LazyGun]

Sounds like the CPS must be reasonably confident that the evidence they do have is sufficiently weighty, and we do not have a statute of limitations on cases such as rape, and rightly so.

Lets not forget that this is the man who in a recent TV interview suggested that society should not be judgemental but totally forgiving of people who have committed child sex crimes.
He also called for anonimity for celebrities facing such allegations.
This is also the man who believes in the principle of karma so much that he believes that those that suffer assaults, rapes, etc brought it on themselves because of actions of theirs in a previous life.

All this from an interview back in March.It makes me wonder whether seeing that interview was enought to prompt an alleged victim to go to the police - that and the surfacing of allegations against SoVile etc...

And the evidence that accusations of rape or sexual assault are made as a means of making money is extremely scarce.I would imagine that the investigators would be testing recall and evidence with that kind of thing in mind anyway...

[Connemmara]

I am with you Cloverjo - innocent until proven guilty. Life will never be the same for any of these men as mud sticks.

[jackthehat]

It's pretty firmly stuck to Stuart Hall.....

[Zeuhl]

That's three recent ones from Corrie

Have the police investigated any other Soaps?

[Connemmara]

zehul - michael le vell, bill roache, who is the third.

[Zeuhl]

Andrew Lancel (Frank Foster)

comes to trial in June

[anotheoldgit]

Connemmara

/// I am with you Cloverjo - innocent until proven guilty. Life will never be the same for any of these men as mud sticks. ///

"Mud Sticks"

Thank goodness it didn't in Matthew Kelly's case back in 2003.

Although he was arrested on stage, he was later cleared of all charges and still continues to entertain.

[ummmm]

Having child porn on his computer for 'research' purposes doesn't seem to have damaged Pete Townsends too much either.

[anotheoldgit]

ummmm

Not being at all picky regarding your spelling of Pete Townshend, but it did make me smile when the only Peter Townsend I remember was Battle of Britain pilot Group Captain Peter Townsend (Princess Margaret's boyfriend)

So I typed that Townsend into Google to find that that Townsend was not Townshend the pop musician who was writing a book on Child abuse.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-154623/Pete-Townshend-I-paedophile.html

[ummmm]

I was typing more and should have gone back and deleted the 's'. I'm such a lazy typer :-)

[anotheoldgit]

ummmm

Mistakes do happen ummmm, but can at times result in misunderstandings. :0)

[FredPuli43]

Rape is hard enough to prove, aog, but no harder to prove than any other offence, apart from strict liability ones (no insurance etc where intent is not an element). The law has progressed. Years ago, it was much harder to prove. That was because the laws of evidence made it so.

Lapse of time affects memory and, sometimes, the availability of witnesses. However, some events remain fresh in memory for decades. A girl or woman who has been raped would normally be expected to have along memory of the event. That the defendant doesn't remember events doesn't avail him; he cannot plead that as a defence or answer. The only possible plea is to say that pursuing a prosecution is an abuse of process and manifestly unjust. I doubt if any of those charged will manage that successfully.

[grumpy01]

You do make us wonder how many partners you did have though VHG