Veteran broadcaster Stuart Hall has pled not guilty to raping two young girls.
Mr Hall, 84, is accused of committing a string of historic sexual offences against his alleged victims.
He will go on trial at Preston Crown Court on May 6.
Mr Hall, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, is alleged to have committed seven counts of rape against one complainant between 1976 and 1978 in Manchester. Five of the rapes are said to have taken place when she was aged under 16.
He is also accused of two counts of indecent assault against the same complainant within the same period.
In addition, he is charged with eight counts of rape against a second alleged victim between 1976 and 1981, at various locations in Greater Manchester and Cheshire.
One of those alleged rapes is said to have taken place when the complainant was aged under 13.
Mr Hall is also accused of three counts of indecent assault against the same alleged victim.
Answering to his full name of James Stuart Hall, the defendant entered not guilty pleas to each of the 20 counts.
The trial is estimated to last seven days.
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