Coronation Street's longest serving actor, William Roache, has been accused of five charges of indecent assault against four underage girls in court. The star, who plays Ken Barlow on the soap, was arrest on Thursday (June 6) and is due to appear in court for the five historic offences on Friday (June 7) morning.

Roache, who is 81-year-old, is being called out on several crimes he committed against underaged girls in the Manchester area between 1965 and 1968 and was arrested following a scheduled meeting with police in Cheshire yesterday. The girls Roache stands accused of abusing range between the ages of 11 or 12 and 16.

The charges come a month after the Corrie actor was first arrested on the historic list of offences, charges that the actor vehemently denies ever taking place. His arrest comes in the aftermath of the Jimmy Saville scandal and made the actor, who has served on Corrie throughout it's 60-year run, one of three different actors from the soap to be charged with child-related sex offences in the past few weeks. Roache is a personal friend of fellow sex offender Stuart Hall too, the former BBC presenter who is due to be sentenced in court later this month after admitting to indecently assaulting 13 girls between the 60s and 80s.

Nazir Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West, released a statement along with the charges that read; "Having completed our review, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Roache to be charged with five offences of indecent assault relating to four girls who were aged between 11 or 12 and 16 at the time that the alleged offences happened."

William Roache RTE
The Corrie actor was charged as part of the fallout from the Jimmy Saville inquiry

William Roache BAFTA
The actor has spent most of his career on Corrie