Twitter user arrested over claim alleged victim in Michael Le Vell child sex case was named
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A Twitter user has been arrested by police over claims he used the micro-blogging site to name an alleged child sex victim in the case involving Coronation Street star Michael Le Vell.
According to reports the man, a 23-year-old, from Cheadle in Greater Manchester, was questioned by police over a tweet sent earlier this week, and later released on bail pending further inquiries.
The Coronation Street star, famous for playing Kevin Webster in the ITV soap opera, is accused of 19 sexual offences against a child. Under law all alleged victims of sexual offences are entitled to anonymity.
The alleged offences date between 2001 and 2010 and include six charges of rape, six of indecent assault and seven of sexual touching.
Detective Chief Inspector Chris Bridge from Greater Manchester Police told Digital Spy: "Maintaining the anonymity of victims of sex offences is absolutely vital and is something that really helps encourage them to come forward.
"Breaching this ruling is an extremely serious offence and that is why we launched an investigation as soon as we became aware. Social media is an immensely powerful tool that does an awful lot of good, but it can also be used to spread rumour, speculation and in this case break the law.
"As a force, GMP embraces the use of social media, but when it is abused in this way we will take robust action to hold those responsible to account."