CORONATION Street star William Roache was like "an octopus" with "hands everywhere", an alleged sex assault victim told detectives.
She said the actor - whom she dubbed The Roache - groped her in a room at Granada Studios in Manchester after being led past the Rovers Return pub on the set.
In a video recording of her police interview played to jurors at Preston Crown Court yesterday, she said she thought she was about 14 when Mr Roache arranged studio passes for her and her younger sister.
She said: "He came over to me and stood really close to me and put both hands on my breasts.
"He took his right arm off and he had gone up my skirt and into my knickers.
"I started worrying. I knew I couldn't run."
The woman added that Mr Roache - who has played Ken Barlow since the launch of the ITV soap - also told her: "Perhaps next time."
She told the interviewing woman officer: "He was like an octopus. Hands everywhere."
Mr Roache, 81, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, denies two counts of rapes and five counts of indecent assault involving five complainants aged 16 and under on dates between 1965 and 1971.
The woman said she did not tell her sister - who also claims she was abused by Mr Roache on a separate occasion - about the alleged incident until a few weeks later.
She said when it was announced that Mr Roache had been arrested on suspicion of rape, her sister rang her and said: "Have you heard the good news?"
"She said are you going to the police and I said 'No'. I thought 'Who is going to believe me?"'
The officer asked: "What made you come forward?"
She replied: "It was (my sister). She said we have got to nail him, we can't let him get away with it.
"I thought if she is going to come forward then I will."The trial continues on Monday morning.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article