Michael Le Vell: Child Rapes 'Didn't Happen'

Coronation Street actor Michael Le Vell has repeatedly denied abusing and raping a child under cross-examination at Manchester Crown Court.

On the fifth day of his trial for 12 charges of child sex abuse, Eleanor Laws QC, prosecuting, put it to the 48-year-old that he "pushed the limits" with the youngster before "it became a little bit more sinister".

Ms Laws said: "Not that you were not ashamed about this but you could not stop it."

Le Vell, who has starred in the ITV1 soap for 30 years, replied: "It never happened."

Ms Laws continued: "You started to say things to her? Talk to her, say things like 'It's OK'. This was grooming.

"It became a little bit more sinister after a while."

Le Vell replied: "No."

Ms Laws said: "Rubbing up her leg?"

Le Vell replied: "Definitely not."

Ms Laws went on: "Rubbing her, 'I'm just getting rid of the evil'."

Le Vell: "No."

Ms Laws said: "And it moved on to you making her touch your penis?"

"No, not at all," replied Le Vell.

Ms Laws said: "Then it moved on to touching her intimately?"

Le Vell replied: "No."

Ms Laws said: "You started to rape her?"

Le Vell said: "No."

Ms Laws: "She just lay there, didn't she?"

Le Vell: "No, because it didn't happen."

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claims Le Vell repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped her, once while she was clutching a teddy bear.

The alleged offences relate to one complainant and are said to have taken place between September 2002 and September 2010.

Later the prosecutor said: "The problem was she was not doing anything. She was not resisting. There was nothing to stop you, except yourself."

Le Vell said: "It didn't start to stop anything."

As he continued to give his version of events, Ms Laws said: "Are you making this up as you go along?"

He said: "No, this is fact."

Le Vell, whose real name is Michael Turner, denies five counts of rape, three of indecent assault, two counts of sexual activity with a child and two of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

Earlier he told the jury that the "little dark secrets" he had discussed with someone last year were a reference to a number of one-night stands and an affair rather than the allegations.

Closing arguments will take place in the trial on Monday.

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'Small Island' Britain: Cameron Rejects Slight

David Cameron has delivered a passionate response to a Russian official's alleged dismissal of Britain as a "small island" whose views can be ignored.

In response the Prime Minister said: "Let me be clear - Britain may be a small island, but I would challenge anyone to find a country with a prouder history, a bigger heart or greater resilience."

Downing Street has demanded "clarification" from the Kremlin over the remarks reportedly made by President Vladimir Putin's chief spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Putin's chief spokesman Dmitry Peskov

He apparently told reporters that the UK was "just a small island: no one pays any attention to them".

Mr Peskov denied that he was responsible for the comment and insisted it did not reflect the reality of Russia's views on its "positive" relations with the UK.

He said: "I don't know the source of that claim. I simply can't explain the source of that claim. Definitely it is nothing to do with reality. It is definitely not something I have said."

Asked if he thought the comment might have been made by someone representing Mr Putin, he said: "Definitely not."

Mr Cameron told reporters at the G20 that a nerve had not been touched by the apparent comment in response to a question.

He said: "This whole issue has now been denied by the Russia spokesman. They claim they never said such a thing."

However, he still went on make his defence of Britain's role in the world.

"Britain is an island that has helped to clear the European continent of fascism and was resolute in doing that throughout the Second World War," he said.

"Britain is an island that helped to abolish slavery, that has invented most of the things worth inventing, including every sport currently played around the world, that still today is responsible for art, literature and music that delights the entire world.

Putin sits next to Cameron and Germany's Angela Merkel at the G20

"We are very proud of everything we do as a small island - a small island that has the sixth-largest economy, the fourth best-funded military, some of the most effective diplomats, the proudest history, one of the best records for art and literature and contribution to philosophy and world civilisation."

He added: "For the people who live in Northern Ireland, I should say we are not just an island we are a collection of islands. I don't want anyone in Shetland or Orkney to feel left out by this."

Meanwhile Downing Street distanced itself from an offensive comment made by Tory MP Henry Smith in reference to Mr Putin.

The backbencher tweeted that the Russian leader was a "tosser".

In response, the Prime Minister's spokesman said: "Some of the comments, I don't think they need any comment. We need a robust but constructive approach and anything else, that's clearly not how the Government goes about its relations with Russia."

Asked about Mr Cameron listing British achievements, the spokesman said: "The PM was answering a question that was put to him. I presume the questioner was grateful for that. Britain has been setting the agenda for many of the things that have been discussed at the G20."

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Hitler's Bodyguard Rochus Misch Dies

Rochus Misch, who served as Adolf Hitler's devoted bodyguard for most of World War II has died at the age of 96.

Misch died in Berlin on Thursday after a short illness, Burkhard Nachtigall, who helped him write his 2008 memoir, revealed.

Misch remained proud to the end about his years with Hitler, whom he affectionately called "boss".

In an interview given in 2005 Misch spoke of Hitler as "a very normal man" and gave a riveting account of the German dictator's last days before he and his wife Eva Braun killed themselves as the Soviet Red Army closed in around their bunker in Berlin.

"He was no brute. He was no monster. He was no superman," Misch said.

Born in the tiny Silesian town of Alt Schalkowitz, in what is now Poland, Misch was orphaned at an early age and joined the SS at the age of 20, seeing it as an organisation that was against the rising threat from the left.

Misch with a picture of how he looked in the war

He signed up for the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, a unit founded to serve as Hitler's personal protection.

"It was anti-communist, against Stalin - to protect Europe," Misch said. "I signed up in the war against Bolshevism, not for Adolf Hitler."

In 1940, he was chosen as one of two SS men who would serve as Hitler's bodyguards and general assistants, doing everything from answering the telephones to greeting dignitaries.

Misch and his comrade, fellow SS member Johannes Hentschel, accompanied Hitler almost everywhere he went - including his Alpine retreat in Berchtesgaden and his forward "Wolf's Lair" headquarters.

"He was a wonderful boss," Misch said. "I lived with him for five years. We were the closest people who worked with him ... we were always there. Hitler was never without us day and night."

Misch displays his picture book in 2007

In the last days of Hitler's life, Misch followed him to live underground, protected by the so-called Fuehrerbunker's heavily reinforced concrete ceilings and walls.

"Hentschel ran the lights, air and water and I did the telephones - there was nobody else," he said. "When someone would come downstairs we couldn't even offer them a place to sit. It was far too small."

After the Soviet assault began, Misch remembered generals and Nazi brass coming and going as they tried desperately to cobble together a defence of the capital with the ragtag remains of the German military.

He recalled that on April 22, two days before two Soviet armies completed their encirclement of the city, Hitler said: "That's it. The war is lost. Everybody can go."

"Everyone except those who still had jobs to do like us - we had to stay," Misch said. "The lights, water, telephone ... those had to be kept going but everybody else was allowed to go and almost all were gone immediately."

The former bodyguard never spoke of the regime's atrocities

However, Hitler clung to a report - false, as it turned out - that the Western Allies had called upon Germany to hold Berlin for two more weeks against the Soviets so that they could battle communism together.

"He still believed in a union between West and East," Misch said. "Hitler liked England - except for (then-Prime Minister Winston) Churchill - and didn't think that a people like the English would bind themselves with the communists to crush Germany."

On April 28, Misch saw propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and Hitler confidante Martin Bormann enter the bunker with a man he had never seen before.

"I asked who it was and they said that's the civil magistrate who has come to perform Hitler's marriage," Misch said. That night, Hitler and longtime mistress Eva Braun were married in a short ceremony.

Two days later, Misch saw Goebbels and Bormann talking with Hitler and his adjutant, SS Maj. Otto Guensche, in the bunker's corridor.

Hitler's 'wolf's lair' in Bavaria

"I saw him go into his room ... and someone, Guensche, said that he shouldn't be disturbed," Misch said. "We all knew that it was happening. He said he wasn't going to leave Berlin, he would stay here."

"We heard no shot, we heard nothing, but one of those who was in the hallway, I don't remember if it was Guensche or Bormann, said, 'Linge, Linge, I think it's done,'" Misch said, referring to Hitler's valet Heinz Linge.

"Then everything was really quiet ... who opened the door I don't remember, Guensche or Linge. They opened the door, and I naturally looked, and then there was a short pause and the second door was opened... and I saw Hitler lying on the table like so," Misch said, putting his head down on his hands on his living-room table.

"And Eva lay like so on the sofa with knees up, her head to him."

Misch ran up to the chancellery to tell his superior the news and then back downstairs, where Hitler's corpse had been put on the floor with a blanket over it.

Hitler in 1938 at a Nazi rally

"Then they bundled Hitler up and said 'What do we do now?'" Misch said. "As they took Hitler out ... they walked by me about three or four meters away. I saw his shoes sticking outside the sack."

An SS guard ran down the stairs and tried to get Misch to watch as the two were covered in gasoline and set alight.

"He said, 'The boss is being burned. Come on out,'" Misch recalled. But instead Misch hastily retreated deeper into the bunker to talk with comrade Hentschel.

"I said 'I saw the Gestapo upstairs in the ... chancellery, and it could be that they'll want to kill us as witnesses,'" Misch said.

But Misch stuck to his post in the bunker - which he described as "a coffin of concrete" - taking and directing telephone calls with Goebbels as his new boss until May 2, when he was given permission to flee.

Goebbels, he said, "came down and said: 'You have a chance to live. You don't have to stay here and die.'"

Misch grabbed the rucksack he had packed and fled with a few others into the rubble of Berlin.

Hitler pictured with Hess, Himler and Goebbells

Working his way through cellars and subways, Misch decided to surface after hearing German being spoken above through an air ventilation shaft. But the voices came from about 300 soldiers who had been taken prisoner, and the Soviet guards grabbed him as well.

Following the German surrender on May 7, 1945, Misch was taken to the Soviet Union, where he spent the next nine years in prisoner of war camps before being allowed to return to Berlin in 1954.

He reunited with his wife Gerda, whom he had married in 1942 and who died in 1997, and opened up a shop.

He never responded to questions of guilt or responsibility for the Holocaust, saying he knew nothing of the murder of six million Jews and that Hitler never brought up the Final Solution in his presence.

"That was never a topic," he said emphatically. "Never."

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Syria: Putin And Obama No Closer To Agreement

US President Barack Obama has defied pressure to abandon plans for air strikes against Syria and has said the "world cannot stand idly by".

At the conclusion of the G20 summit in St Petersburg, Mr Obama said he had been "encouraged" by his talks with foreign leaders but that the humanitarian situation in Syria and along its borders was "only getting worse".

Speaking of the conflict which has entered its third year, he said: "I was elected to end wars - not start them."

Mr Obama and Russian president Vladimir Putin have stuck to their positions over Syria, which has dominated talks at the summit.

Mr Putin says Russia has not changed its stance on Syria

Addressing reporters, Mr Putin claimed the chemical attack that killed 1,429 people in Damascus last month was a provocation by rebels to encourage military intervention, disputing US claims that the Syrian government was responsible.

He also suggested that a punitive US military strike on the Middle Eastern nation would harm the global economy and stifle growth.

Mr Obama held a "candid and constructive conversation" with Mr Putin for 20 minutes on the sidelines of the summit on Friday but the pair remain at odds.

The Russian president told reporters: "We spoke sitting down ... it was a constructive, meaningful, cordial conversation. Each of us kept with our own opinion."

Mr Obama said he knows the public is sceptical over action

Mr Obama said he will address the US about Syria on Tuesday as he seeks Congress' authority for action. He refused to say what he would do if the strikes are not approved.

Meanwhile, 11 countries - namely Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the US - have released a joint statement condemning "in the strongest terms" the August 21 attack.

"The international norm against the use of chemical weapons is longstanding and universal," it said.

"The use of chemical weapons anywhere diminishes the security of people everywhere. Left unchallenged, it increases the risk of further use and proliferation of these weapons."

The countries said they would support a UN resolution but said the Security Council was "paralysed", adding: "The world cannot wait for endless failed processes that can only lead to increased suffering in Syria and regional instability."

However, there is strong international resistance to military action in Syria.

China is firmly against an attack on Bashar al Assad's regime and the European Union is sceptical about whether the use of force can be effective.

Even Pope Francis has weighed in, urging leaders to abandon what he called a "futile mission".

A Syrian boy sits beside his family's belongings in Turkey

The US has ordered the evacuation of all non-essential embassy staff and other American citizens in Lebanon due to security concerns as the debate over military action continues.

"The Department of State drew down non-emergency personnel and family members from Embassy Beirut due to threats to US Mission facilities and personnel," a statement on the Beirut embassy's website said.

It also reducing its diplomatic presence in Adana in southern Turkey.

In his closing speech David Cameron said the international community cannot "contract out" its morality by allowing Russia to block intervention in crises such as that engulfing Syria.

A Free Syrian Army fighter in Aleppo

The Prime Minister insisted military action had to be possible without an endorsement from the UN Security Council.

Mr Cameron said: "If we live in a world where the US president draws a red line and says that consequences must follow, and no consequences do follow, I fear for that world because not just the dictator in question - Assad - will, I believe, think he has the impunity to use chemical weapons further but other dictators, other countries, will draw the same lesson."

Earlier Syria's state news agency SANA said the country's head of parliament has urged the US Congress to vote against military action targeting its regime.

"We urge you not to take reckless measures as you have the power to steer the United States from the path of war to that of diplomacy," it quoted parliament chief Jihad al Lahham.

Mr Cameron has announced an additional £52m in aid to help the estimated two million refugees who have fled Syria's civil war.

The money will be go towards providing both internally displaced people and refugees in neighbouring countries like Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq with food, water and shelter.

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Syria: Defector 'Exposes Assad Chemical Attack'

A former Syrian forensic medicine expert has provided evidence that the Assad regime used chemical weapons, opposition forces say.

Abdeltawwab Shahrour, head of the forensic medicine committee in Aleppo, claims there was a chemical attack in Khan al-Assal, Aleppo, on March 19, said Istanbul-based opposition coalition spokeswoman Sarah Karkour.

Mr Shahrour, who has defected to Turkey, has documents proving the attack took place and eyewitness accounts from police authorities that contradicte the administration's version of events, a second opposition official said.

Both the government and rebels have blamed each other for what they say was an attack involving chemical weapons. More than two dozen people died.

The alleged chemical attack in Damascus

Russia, which alongside Iran is Syria's closest ally and chief arms supplier, said in July its own scientific analysis indicated the attack had involved the nerve agent sarin and had most likely been carried out by the rebels.

Both sides deny using chemical weapons.

Dr Shahrour was expected to reveal the details of the attack during a press conference in Turkey but Syrian National Council spokesperson Khaled Saleh said he was unable to appear due to "security concerns".

Mr Saleh added that the national council has received information in the last few days that three government convoys were carrying chemical weapons and one had reached a military airport.

He said: "We have serious concerns based on the information that we have received from sources inside the Assad army who are sympathetic to the revolution that Assad might be considering using those chemical weapons against innocent civilians."

Aleppo has seen heavy fighting between the two sides for months

A team of UN experts who visited Syria last month to investigate allegations of chemicals weapons had originally planned to visit Khan al-Assal.

However, it ended up focusing on a much larger apparent poison gas attack which killed hundreds of civilians in suburbs of the capital Damascus on August 21.

The new opposition claims come as France bolstered calls for military action in Syria by saying it had evidence the regime was behind the "massive and co-ordinated" chemical attack in Damascus.

Syria's government called the allegations "illogical" and warned it would retaliate if France took military action.

The US government has also said evidence points to deadly sarin gas being used to kill 1,429 people in the August attack.

US President Barack Obama has been meeting political figures such as Senator John McCain as he tries to galvanise support for military strikes ahead of a debate in Congress.

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Van Load Of Heroin Seized In Channel Tunnel

French customs have intercepted a van carrying 65 kilograms (143 pounds) of heroin travelling through the Channel Tunnel towards Britain.

The "exceptional" haul equals one-quarter of the total amount intercepted by French authorities in 2012. 

The heroin was discovered inside 120 packets hidden inside a boiler in the vehicle.

The van began its journey in the Netherlands and was stopped by officers on August 27.

The total street value of the haul is 2.6 million euros, (£2.2m).

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Corrie Le Vell 'Raped Girl On Regular Basis'

The mother of Michael Le Vell's alleged victim says she believes her daughter was raped by the actor "on a regular basis".

The Coronation Street star is at Manchester Crown Court for the second day of his child rape trial.

On Monday, his alleged victim told the court the actor first raped her when she was six years old as she clutched her teddy bear.

Her mother, who cannot be identified, was in the witness box today and cried as she recalled the moment her daughter told her about the alleged rape.

The woman told the court: "I believe he molested and abused her on a regular basis and there had been a number of rapes."

She said her daughter told her how Le Vell held a teddy bear against her mouth while raping her and he would force the girl to give him oral sex.

The victim's mother said when she confronted Le Vell about the alleged sex abuse, he replied: "You are joking. You are having a laugh."

Le Vell, 48, who plays car mechanic Kevin Webster in the ITV soap, denies committing the offences.

Le Vell, at court today, plays car mechanic Kevin Webster in the soap

Earlier, the girl, 17, was cross-examined by Le Vell's defence barrister Alisdair Williamson, who accused her of lying.

The girl, who is giving evidence from behind a screen in the court, cannot be identified for legal reasons.

During the cross-examination, Mr Williamson questioned the girl's story and her motivations.

The barrister said the girl went to an "inspirational self-help" conference where she heard a motivational speech from a woman who was raped at a young age.

Mr Williamson said the rape victim who gave the talk then went on to rebuild her life and become a success.

The lawyer said: "Is that what some of this is about? You heard this lady talking about how she was raped when she was very young and how she went on and became a model? You want to become an actress or a dancer, is that right?"

The girl replied: "I wanted to, I don't anymore."

During further questions from Eleanor Laws QC, prosecuting, the girl said she could not remember seeing the motivational speech from the rape victim.

The alleged victim also told the court that Le Vell smelt strongly of alcohol the first time he raped her.

She cried as she told the court: "I hated him because what he did was so wrong and I was so young and I did not know at the time."

Le Vell outside the court on Monday

The girl said Le Vell took her to an award show and arranged a visit to Coronation Street after he raped her.

As the girl gave evidence, Le Vell repeatedly shook his head.

Earlier, the barrister asked the girl about alleged inconsistencies in what she had told police.

Mr Williamson told the court the witness had initially told police she had never talked to anyone about the alleged abuse.

But the lawyer claimed the witness "told lots of girls" about it.

"I told two friends because they saw me crying," the witness replied.

But when police were called in the witness told the officer she had not told anyone, the court heard.

Mr Williamson continued: "The officer came to see you because ... you told people and you told the officer a little lie.

"You told him you had not told the girls, they had just guessed.

"I suggest that was a little lie?"

"No," the witness replied.

Le Vell is facing 12 charges in all - five counts of rape, three of indecent assault, two counts of sexual activity with a child, and two of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

The alleged offences relate to one complainant and are said to have taken place between 2001 and September 2010. The girl was aged between six and 14.

After his arrest Le Vell, a father of two, told officers the allegations were a "pack of absolute lies" and he has maintained his innocence throughout.

Le Vell, of Hale, Cheshire, is one of TV's most famous faces after playing Kevin Webster for the past 30 years.

ITV has said he will not be appearing in any further episodes of Coronation Street pending the outcome of legal proceedings.

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Syria: Obama Makes New Military Action Vow

The US has a plan to help Syria's rebels bring down the Assad regime after launching military strikes, President Obama has said.

Mr Obama said again that military action against Syria would be "limited" but suggested a strike would go further than simply punishing President Bashar al Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons.

The president said he was confident that Congress would vote in favour of military action and called for a prompt vote on the issue.

During a meeting of congressional leaders at the White House, he said: "What we are envisioning is something limited. It is something proportional. It will degrade Assad's capabilities.

"At the same time we have a broader strategy that will allow us to upgrade the capabilities of the opposition." 

Washington is currently assessing whether to order sea-launched strikes against Syria, with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden attempting to convince Congress of the need to intervene.

After the meeting the president received a boost when the top Republican in Congress said he would back the call for military action, and urged his colleagues to do the same.

Speaking outside the White House, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said: "This is something that the United States as a country needs to do.

Democratic Leader in Congress Nancy Pelosi said she did not expect a resolution calling for military action in Syria to be rejected. 

Mr Obama clarified his intentions after influential senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham met with him and said they expected US military action to be "more robust" than previously thought.

Mr Graham said: "It is all in the details, but I left the meeting feeling better than I felt before about what happens the day after and that the purpose of the attack is going to be a little more robust than I thought."

Mr McCain said in an interview that Mr Obama did not reveal what weapons might be provided to the opposition in Syria or discuss in what targets might be attacked.

Israel fears being targeted if Syria comes under attack from Western powers

"There was no concrete agreement, 'OK, we got a deal,'" Mr McCain said.

"Like a lot of things, the devil is in the details."

The president indicated in his meeting with the pair that the first 50-man cell of CIA-trained rebel fighters was heading for the Syrian battlefield, the New York Times reported.

The unit's deployment would be the first tangible show of support since Mr Obama announced in June that the US would begin providing the rebels with small arms.

Mr Obama's latest statement came after tensions in the Middle East were raised by Israel's unannounced missile launch in the Mediterranean.

Israel claimed it carried out a joint missile system test with the US after Russia's defence ministry said two ballistic "objects" were fired towards the eastern Mediterranean from the central part of the sea.

Israel's defence ministry said it had tested a single Sparrow target missile, which it said was "successfully" detected and tracked by its Arrow missile-defence system.

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon shrugged off a question on whether the launch might have been ill-timed, telling reporters Israel had to work to maintain its military edge.

"It is known that preparedness of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) in the last week relies a lot on technological capabilities, that the defence establishment in its wider sense puts at the army's disposal.

"Research and development in the defence industry - engineers, scientists who work day and night - they know at the end of the day to put Israel in the front line of technology.

"This necessitates field trials and, accordingly, a successful trial was conducted to test our systems. And we will continue to develop and to research and to equip the IDF with the best systems in the world." 

Despite reports that Israel was claiming the launch as a joint test with America, a US Navy spokesman said no missiles had been fired from any of its ships in the Mediterranean.

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