The longest-serving cast member of soap opera 'Coronation Street' has provoked anger after claiming sex abuse victims bring it on themselves.
In an interview for a New Zealand news channel 80-year old Bill Roache says sex abuse victims paying the price for their behaviour in previous lives. The soap legend also appears to defend famous men who sleep with underage girls.
And when talking about people accused of being abusers he says "we should not be judgemental about anybody ever". The National Association for People Abused in Childhood in the UK are outraged by his comments.
'Everyone's innocent until proven guilty'
Speaking to TVNZ he said of the victims: "If you accept that you are pure love...and therefore live that pure love, these things won't happen to you".
He was then pressed by the interviewer who asked "To some people that sounds perhaps like you're saying victims bring things on themselves. Is that what you're saying?"
To which he replied "No, not quite, but then yes I am. Everything that happens to us is the result of what we have been in previous lives".
This comes as his co-star Michael Le Vell has been suspended from the soap after he was charged with 19 child sex offences. During his interview Roache insisted: "Everyone's innocent until they're proven guilty".
