Coronation Street star Bill Roache said he was "very sorry" today for claiming sex abuse victims bring it on themselves.

The star, who has played strait-laced Ken Barlow in the ITV soap for more than 50 years, caused outrage by appearing to defend stars who sleep with underage girls.

But in a statement, the actor apologised, saying: "I would like to say that I am very sorry for any offence that has been caused as a result of my comments.

"I would never say that victims of sexual offences are in any way responsible for the abuse they have suffered and I offer my deepest apologies if anything I have said has been misunderstood in this way.

"I had no intention of causing any kind of distress as a result of my interview and I offer my utmost sympathies to anyone affected by sexual offences and paedophilia."

However, in another interview earlier today, Roache stopped short of issuing an apology - but denied saying that victims deserved to be abused.

"I am not going to be talking about victims or life and things," he told Sky News.

"Life is what you make it. We do come in to life to learn from certain experiences and broadly some of the major experiences we have asked to go through, this is my understanding of life.

"I don't want to be put into that - if you are going to pin me down and start saying that all victims deserve what they are getting, no I am not saying that at all."

Asked whether he felt fans from previous decades who threw themselves at stars were to blame, Roache said that 'tactility' helped guide people as to what was appropriate contact and what was not.

"I’m not blaming anybody for anything," he said. "But things were different back in the 70s.

"People were more tactile. You did things that today are regarded as wrong.

"A lot of these offences that you’re talking about are just inappropriate touching.

"Which 20, 30, 40 years ago it was sort of understood that you did, in a way, that’s how you found out.

"Someone said you’d touched inappropriately they said ‘don’t do that’ and you didn’t do that. That was the end of it.

"I’m not saying that’s a good thing, I think it’s probably better the way things are. But that is how it was."


Adding that he did not want to be regarded as judgemental, the 80-year-old was also asked whether he was concerned that even he may not have known the ages of people with which he had relationships.

He replied: "I think there’s a lot of people today, who if they look back, they did things that today are regarded as wrong and in those days they weren’t. And that is a worry.

"I think it is probably unfair to judge too harshly today on things that were done 20, 30 years ago.

"There should be a greater understanding that things were different in those days."

In his New Zealand's One News interview Roache, talking about the furore around the Jimmy Savile sex abuse revelations, defended people "on the fringes", especially pop stars, who he said were "caught in this trap" by sexually active young female groupies.

His comments were condemned by the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), which said his comments were an insult to abuse victims.

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In a behind-the-scenes interview for the television channel, Roache discussed the exposure of Savile as one of the country's most prolific ever paedophiles who may have abused hundreds of children.

He said: "If you accept that you are pure love, and if you know that you are pure love and therefore live that pure love, these things won't happen to you."

Interviewer Garth Bray replied: "To some people that sounds perhaps like you're saying victims bring things on themselves - is that what you're saying?"

Roache replied: "No, not quite, but and yet I am, because everything that happens to us has been a result of what we have been in previous lives or whatever."

Coronation Street actor William Roach, who plays Ken Barlow in the long running soap, with his wife Sara as they leave their London hotel for Buckingham Palace
Love of his life: Bill with his wife Sara, who died in 2009

Roache went on to call for anonymity for all those accused of child sex offences because of the stigma they faced even if innocent.

He said: "Paedophilia is absolutely horrendous. Paedophiles should be sought out, rooted out and dealt with.

"But there's a fringe of people who, particularly pop singers, they have these groupies, these girls, who come, they're sexually active, sexually mature, they don't ask for their birth certificate, they don't know what age they may be.

"But they're 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."

He added: "If someone has done something wrong the law will take its course.

"But even so, all of them, whether they are proven guilty or not, we should not be judgmental about anybody, ever.

"We shouldn't go around condemning, unforgiving. We should all be totally forgiving about everything."

Dr Jon Bird, from NAPAC, condemned Roache's "hippy-dippy" spiritualist beliefs, saying child sex abuse left people with horrific physical and mental scars.

"Abuse is a crime. The rape of a child is an appalling crime and the long term effects we hear about include suicide," he said.

"There is a whole range of terrible consequences that are life-long.

"This is a real insult, it is horrible. I think a lot of people will be deeply offended by what he said."

The world according to William

On the earth's new golden age

The earth will continue to cleanse itself while material and negative things will collapse and cease to be.

On bedding more than 1,000 women

Looking back, I didn't know any better. But what I did find out is it does not bring you happiness.

On cheating on his first wife

There were plenty of girls around. I shouldn't have done it. I didn't have any control over my own sex drive.