The star, who plays car mechanic Kevin Webster in the ITV soap, 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 country's top prosecutor has told MPs it was the "right decision" to pursue a prosecution of now-acquitted Coronation Street actor Michael Le Vell for child sex abuse charges.
Keir Starmer QC, outgoing director of public prosecutions, told the Home Affairs Select Committee a "proper assessment of the evidence was taken in the case".
His remarks come after Le Vell was cleared of 12 child sex offences at Manchester Crown Court yesterday.
Mr Starmer told the Committee: "There is a safeguard within our system and that is at the end of the prosecution's case in court, it is not only open to the judge it is the duty of the judge to stop the case if there's no case to answer.
"That did not happen in this case, and therefore there was a case to answer. That case was answered and the jury took some time to consider their verdict.
"So it was a properly brought case, it's not a case on which there was no evidence, had it been it would have been stopped half way after testing of the evidence."
A jury has found actor Michael Le Vell innocent of a string of sex charges
A girl who claims Coronation Street star Michael Le Vell raped her was today accused of telling a "little lie" to police.