Judge says jurors must decide whether actor's alleged victim told 'the absolute truth' or set out to destroy his life
The jurors in the child sex abuse trial of the Coronation Street actor Michael Le Vell have been given the task of deciding whether his alleged victim is telling "the absolute truth" or has set out to destroy his life.
The jury of eight women and four men were sent out to consider their verdict after hearing five days of evidence in a packed courtroom at Manchester crown court. Le Vell, 48, who plays the garage mechanic Kevin Webster in the ITV soap, is accused of 12 sexual assaults, five of them rapes, upon one girl. He denies the charges.
Shortly before the jury left to begin considering their verdicts at 3.51pm, the judge Michael Henshell told them: "Do not allow sympathy to cloud your judgment for either side."
He said what jurors had made of the girl's tearful testimony would be vital in deciding their verdicts. He said if the Crown was right and she was a truthful witness then she was someone who was recalling traumatic events from an early age. The other side of the coin was that she was dishonest and had come to court to "quite literally destroy" the life of the defendant, he said.
Le Vell, who has been one of the stars of Coronation Street for the past 30 years, listened intently to the final submissions of both prosecution and defence.
Eleanor Laws QC spoke of the "courage" shown by Le Vell's alleged victim. She said the girl had no reason to lie and was telling "the absolute truth".
Laws said the jurors might have strong feelings about the sort of allegations being made against Le Vell. "For example, before we started this trial some of you may have thought, 'There seem to be a lot of prosecutions of celebrities. Is there some kind of witch-hunt. Has the world gone mad?'
"No one likes to think that someone they liked or admired has done anything like this. The jurors might also think that it was 'such an easy allegation to make' but a difficult one to defend. But crimes like this did take place, and they could go undetected for years."
Laws said that what counted was their reaction to the girl's evidence. "Was she a wicked, convincing liar, or did you sit there and think to yourself that she was telling the truth because that is all she can do?"
Laws said the girl had several opportunities to withdraw her allegations, among them the occasion the Crown Prosecution Service reviewed the case and did not press charges.
She said that even as the trial date approached, she still had a choice as to whether to give evidence as a witness. The reality was that there was no reason for her to lie, Law said. "If you are sure that she is telling the truth and not lying, then it is your duty to mark her courage from the witness box with convictions."
Alisdair Williamson, defending, mocked the assertion that Le Vell was guilty, saying: "Welcome to the prosecution's hall of mirrors, where left is right and right is left."
Williamson highlighted what he claimed were a number of inconsistencies in the complainant's accounts of being attacked. "She had told a family friend: 'It's true. It happened when I was 10'. Later, she told a group of her contemporaries: 'It happened 10 times'. Where did she get the figure 10 from?
"Had she really been raped as a young child it would have been extremely painful. There wasn't even a muffled scream. She just didn't make a sound. Is that real?"
He said of his client: "He is a man, not a character. A weak man, a stupid man, a drunk man. But nothing in this case has taken you anywhere near, I suggest, the level of certainty that you would need for you to look in the mirror in the days that come and say 'I'm sure'."
Williamson asked the jury: "Are you going to take a man's life away from him? Are you going to cast him to the outer darkness of being a child rapist?"
The jurors, who were sent home for the evening, resume their deliberations tomorrow.
Nigel Bunyantheguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Reported by guardian.co.uk 5 hours ago.
The jurors in the child sex abuse trial of the Coronation Street actor Michael Le Vell have been given the task of deciding whether his alleged victim is telling "the absolute truth" or has set out to destroy his life.
The jury of eight women and four men were sent out to consider their verdict after hearing five days of evidence in a packed courtroom at Manchester crown court. Le Vell, 48, who plays the garage mechanic Kevin Webster in the ITV soap, is accused of 12 sexual assaults, five of them rapes, upon one girl. He denies the charges.
Shortly before the jury left to begin considering their verdicts at 3.51pm, the judge Michael Henshell told them: "Do not allow sympathy to cloud your judgment for either side."
He said what jurors had made of the girl's tearful testimony would be vital in deciding their verdicts. He said if the Crown was right and she was a truthful witness then she was someone who was recalling traumatic events from an early age. The other side of the coin was that she was dishonest and had come to court to "quite literally destroy" the life of the defendant, he said.
Le Vell, who has been one of the stars of Coronation Street for the past 30 years, listened intently to the final submissions of both prosecution and defence.
Eleanor Laws QC spoke of the "courage" shown by Le Vell's alleged victim. She said the girl had no reason to lie and was telling "the absolute truth".
Laws said the jurors might have strong feelings about the sort of allegations being made against Le Vell. "For example, before we started this trial some of you may have thought, 'There seem to be a lot of prosecutions of celebrities. Is there some kind of witch-hunt. Has the world gone mad?'
"No one likes to think that someone they liked or admired has done anything like this. The jurors might also think that it was 'such an easy allegation to make' but a difficult one to defend. But crimes like this did take place, and they could go undetected for years."
Laws said that what counted was their reaction to the girl's evidence. "Was she a wicked, convincing liar, or did you sit there and think to yourself that she was telling the truth because that is all she can do?"
Laws said the girl had several opportunities to withdraw her allegations, among them the occasion the Crown Prosecution Service reviewed the case and did not press charges.
She said that even as the trial date approached, she still had a choice as to whether to give evidence as a witness. The reality was that there was no reason for her to lie, Law said. "If you are sure that she is telling the truth and not lying, then it is your duty to mark her courage from the witness box with convictions."
Alisdair Williamson, defending, mocked the assertion that Le Vell was guilty, saying: "Welcome to the prosecution's hall of mirrors, where left is right and right is left."
Williamson highlighted what he claimed were a number of inconsistencies in the complainant's accounts of being attacked. "She had told a family friend: 'It's true. It happened when I was 10'. Later, she told a group of her contemporaries: 'It happened 10 times'. Where did she get the figure 10 from?
"Had she really been raped as a young child it would have been extremely painful. There wasn't even a muffled scream. She just didn't make a sound. Is that real?"
He said of his client: "He is a man, not a character. A weak man, a stupid man, a drunk man. But nothing in this case has taken you anywhere near, I suggest, the level of certainty that you would need for you to look in the mirror in the days that come and say 'I'm sure'."
Williamson asked the jury: "Are you going to take a man's life away from him? Are you going to cast him to the outer darkness of being a child rapist?"
The jurors, who were sent home for the evening, resume their deliberations tomorrow.
Nigel Bunyantheguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Reported by guardian.co.uk 5 hours ago.