Coronation Street Bill Roache drops claim to recoup £100,000 in rape trial legal costs

The actor said that he just wanted to ‘move on with his life’.

15:15 18 August 2014

Coronation Street star Bill Roache, who was acquitted earlier this year after being charged with rape, has dropped his claim to recoup over £100,000 in legal costs he spent defending himself.

The veteran actor, who plays Ken Barlow on the ITV soap, said that the process will take too much time and that he just wanted to put the whole affair behind him. He has reportedly told friends: ‘I just want to move on and put the nightmare behind me.’

A source close to the actor told the Sunday Mirror: ‘Initially Bill and his legal team did look into trying to recoup the money. But Bill has now decided he will no longer be going down that road.’

‘It would have been a long, drawn-out process and Bill is desperate to draw a line under what was a truly horrific ordeal for him and his family.

‘Instead he is focusing on getting on with the rest of his life and doing what he loves – being on Coronation Street. He is the happiest he has been in a long time.'