A WOMAN reported Bill Roache for alleged sex abuse after watching a TV interview in which the Coronation Street actor described paedophilia as "absolutely horrendous".
The witness, who claimed Mr Roache had made her perform a sex act in his gold Rolls Royce, acted after being left angered by last year's interview which was broadcast in New Zealand.
Mr Roache also called for child sex abusers need to be "sought out, rooted out and dealt with" in the news programme which was played to jurors during his trial at Preston Crown Court yesterday. The court heard Mr Roache say: "Paedophilia is absolutely horrendous. Paedophiles should be sought out, rooted out and dealt with.
"But there is a fringe here, there is a fringe of people who... particularly pop singers... they have these groupies, these girls who come, they are sexually active, sexually mature.
"They don't ask for their birth certificates. They don't know what age they may be but they are certainly not grooming them and exploiting them. But they can be caught in this trap.
"These people are instantly stigmatised.
"Some will be innocent, some will not. But until such time as it's proven, there should be anonymity for both."
The interviewer cuts in: "If the facts are borne out, there are no excuses there?" Mr Roache, of Cheshire, replied: "No, if someone has done something wrong, the law will take its course but even so, all of us, whatever... whether they are proven guilty or not, we should not be judgmental about anybody, ever.
"We should not go around condemning, unforgiving. We should always be totally forgiving about everything."
He denies two counts of rape and five counts of indecent assault involving the five complainants who were aged 16 and under on dates between 1965 and 1971. The trial is due to continue on Monday.
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