Star, who has played mechanic Kevin Webster in the soap for the past 30 years, is set to return to ITV1 show. Coronation Street star Michael Le Vell was cheered by supporters today after being cleared of child sex allegations and now looks set to resume his role in the long-running soap opera. Nazir Afzal, the Crown Prosecution Service national lead on child sexual exploitation, said "nobody should be above the law" and it is the Crown's job to look at evidence, follow it wherever it may go and then present it, amid criticism over decision to bring the case against Le Vell.
The star was originally arrested in but proceedings against him were dropped and he was re-arrested earlier this year following a review of evidence. We follow the evidence. We present the evidence. I am not shy about pursuing these type of cases and will continue to do so," he said. Le Vell's aunt and several former Coronation Street colleagues claimed he had been taken to court just because of his celebrity status. Actor Ken Morley, who played supermarket manager Reg Holdsworth in Coronation Street, told the Daily Mail : "There was never any physical or forensic evidence or psychiatric report.
I think it will make people revise their attitudes and realise there has been an element of hysteria. Le Vell's aunt, Pat Gallier, told the same newspaper: "The police seem to be arresting celebrities and accusing them of child sex offences without seeming to check if there's enough evidence. The CPS said that it concluded there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and, as they were "very serious" allegations of child sexual abuse, it followed that it was in the public interest to put the evidence before a jury.
Alleged victims of sexual abuse receive lifetime anonymity even if charges are never proved. By contrast those cleared of sex crimes receive no protection sometimes after being subject to intense media coverage. His alleged victim had sobbed in evidence as she claimed she was groomed and abused from the age of six by the star in a near decade-long ordeal culminating in a series of attacks including one in which she was raped whilst clutching a teddy bear.
But the defence poured scorn on her version of events and said that no DNA had been recovered. A medical examination also failed to reveal evidence of assault. Judge Michael Henshell, who had previously warned the jury of eight women and four men not to be influenced by the defendant's celebrity, said they had to decide whether they believed the teenager's account.
