William Roache trial: Coronation
Street actor 'never met' accusers
William
Roache is well known in the soap world. The 81 year old who is undergoing trial
has pleaded not guilty to two rapes and four indecent assaults against five
women aged 16 or under between the years 1965-1971. He also isn’t the only
celebrity to be accused of sexual attacks on young children these past few
years. Jimmy Savile whom was also in the limelight around this time was found
guilty of more than 200 alleged attacks on young children. On the other hand
co-star Michael Le Vell was recently wrongly accused of a string of sexual assaults
and has recently said “This is my year… I am going to win back my career and
kids”.
Ever
since the Savile case the police have had hundreds of people flooding in
telling their side of the story about how they were sexually abused by these
actors at a young age. One view would be to say, were these people wanting this
attention from them, if so, why are they now coming forward to complain. Of
course sexual abuse is no joke and it is unlikely that people are going to lie,
however there are the few that do.
The
other view would be that these people felt that they wouldn’t have been
believed, coming out and saying to anyone that you have been abused is
difficult for anyone, mainly because many feel it is their fault, when as a
matter of fact that’s not the case. Therefore whilst people were keeping quiet,
these celebrities were able to roam around reoffending and hurting others.
There is also the argument that rape is taken much more seriously in the 21st
century, many laws and regulations have been passed regarding this type of
attack. Women and men shouldn’t feel like nobody is going to believe them
anymore.
I
personally find it hard to believe that if all these cases turn out to be true,
how people were not believed at the time, it’s a dreadful thing to think that
just because they are celebrities they were given lenience. We are all humans
just because someone is on the TV does not mean that their sentencing should be
different to any others.
I
guess the final question is who will be accused next!?
