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Bill Roache
Bill Roache who has been arrested on suspicion of an historic allegation of a sexual assault. Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA
Bill Roache who has been arrested on suspicion of an historic allegation of a sexual assault. Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA

Bill Roache arrested on suspicion of raping girl in 1967

This article is more than 10 years old
Roache, who plays Ken Barlow in Coronation Street, arrested on suspicion of offences involving 15-year-old girl in 1967

Coronation Street actor Bill Roache has been arrested on suspicion of two counts of rape.

Roache, 81, who plays Ken Barlow in the ITV1 soap, was arrested by Lancashire constabulary on Wednesday morning on suspicion of offences involving a 15-year-old girl in 1967.

Detectives searched the actor's house in Wilmslow, Cheshire, and took him to be interviewed at an undisclosed police station in Lancashire.

In a statement, Lancashire constabulary said the offences are alleged to have been committed in Haslingden between April and July 1967 and involved a girl then aged 15.

The force added: "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."

Lancashire police declined to confirm the name of the arrested suspect, saying only that he is an 81-year-old man.

However, sources outside Roache's home in Wilmslow confirmed that he had been arrested on Wednesday morning. An ITV producer was outside the actor's home as police detectives searched the property.

Roache is the longest-serving cast member on Coronation Street, having appeared in its first episode on 9 December 1960.

It is understood that Roache will not be appearing on the soap in the near future following his arrest, posing a complex challenge for producers to edit his character out of several current storylines.

An ITV spokesman said: "Given that a police investigation is under way, it would not be appropriate for us to comment."

In March, Roache apologised after he appeared to suggest victims of sex crimes were being punished for past sins.

He told New Zealand's One News TV show that "if you accept that you are pure love, and if you know that you are pure love … these things won't happen to you".

Asked to clarify if that meant "victims bring things on themselves", Roache added: "No, not quite, but and yet I am … everything that happens to us has been a result of what we have been in previous lives."

He later said he was "very sorry for any offence that has been caused as a result of my comments".

Roache's wife, Sara, died in 2009 after more than 30 years of marriage to the Coronation Street actor. The pair have two grown-up children.

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