The 81-year-old, who plays Ken Barlow on the ITV soap, maintained he was innocent and denied the charges.

"In these situations there are no winners, and I think we should all be much kinder to ourselves," he said in a statement afterwards.

Listen to his full statement here:It took the jury a matter of hours hours to reach unanimous verdicts on all the counts after being sent out to deliberate on Wednesday afternoon.

Mr Roache with some members of his family family

During a four-week trial at Preston Crown Court, all of the women, most of them now in their 60s, told jurors they were sexually abused by the defendant either at Granada Studios in Manchester, in his car or at properties he owned.

But Roache said he had no knowledge of any of the women and told jurors the abuse - which was alleged to have taken place between the mid-60s and early 70s when the complainants were aged 12 to 16 - simply did not happen.

When he gave evidence from the witness box himself, he insisted he had never met the women who had come forward with complaints against him - and that he did not even recognise them.

He said he was "astounded" and "horrified" at his arrest on suspicion of rape at his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, on May 1 last year.

Mr Roache said it was a complete shock to him, that he broke out in a sweat and could not take it all in.

Four more women came forward and alleged they too had been victims.

ITV said at the time Mr Roache would not appear in the long-running soap until legal proceedings concluded.

Mr Roache's barrister, Louise Blackwell QC, argued throughout the trial that her client was not a sexual risk-taker and was not interested in underage girls.

In a statement on Thursday upon learning of the verdict, the broadcaster said in a statement: "We look forward to talking to Bill soon about his return to work."