William Roache
William Roache was branded a "cockroach" a court heard yesterday, by a fellow Coronation Street co-star.
An alleged sex assault victim of the 81-year-old actor - who is on trial for historic sex offences involving minors, including two counts of rape and five counts of indecent assault - claimed fellow soap star Peter Adamson warned her William would "lead you astray" and likened him to the insect using a play on his surname.
The woman, identified only as Girl D, alleges the Ken Barlow actor fondled her breasts and put his hand up her skirt when she visited Granada Studios in Manchester - where 'Coronation Street' used to be filmed - at the age of 14 in the late 1960s.
She told the court: "Len Fairclough said he would lead us astray. He called him a cockroach with a capital C. He said, 'You want to keep your eye on him.' "
Peter, who played Len Fairclough in the hit ITV soap, passed away in 2002.
Girl D's testimony comes after her sister, known only as Girl E, claimed the veteran actor forced her to perform a sex act on him as he gave her and a friend a lift home in his Rolls-Royce car.
The woman - now 57 - told Preston Crown Court that William insisted she sit with him in the front of the car and "fumbled" around before placing her hand on his groin and moved "it up and down".
The 'Coronation Street' star is accused of two counts of raping a 15-year-old girl in 1967 and five counts of indecent assault involving four girls, aged from 11 to 16, between 1965 and 1968, all of which he "strenuously" denies.