ON the steps of Preston Crown Court, after being cleared of rape and sexual assualt charges, Coronation Street star William Roache was right when he declared: “In these situations, there are no winners.”

The actor, who plays Ken Barlow, is a free man, unanimously acquitted by a jury of horrific charges that he repeatedly forced himself on women and underage girls.

But, as an old man of 81, he has had to put his career on hold while he endured the ordeal of his private life, including his admitted infidelity and promiscuity, being laid bare in court and transmitted around the world.

Even now, as a free and exonerated man, there will be those who will take the view that there is no smoke without fire.

For Lancashire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, there are legitimate concerns that so many contradictions were so easily exposed by the defence and, in one case, the complainant having “no actual memory” of the alleged abuse.

Of course, such serious allegations must be taken seriously, and be properly investigated, but there are understandable questions about whether there has been an over-reaction in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.

Unlike William Roache, the women who made the allegations have their anonymity preserved – but they too have won nothing.

Perhaps most worryingly, the criminal justice system is ultimately the biggest loser because a shambles of a case such as this is hardly likely to encourage victims of sexual abuse to come forward.