Le Vell Stripped Of Celebrity Status In Court

Описание: Who is Michael Turner? For the jury it's a question that has dominated all others in his sex abuse trial where he has now been found not guilty.

The prosecution urged jurors to forget the soap star who goes by the stage name Le Vell.

The judge said they should discount the familiar face known to millions of Coronation Street followers.

It sounded straight forward but psychologist Cary Cooper said that in general we believe, initially at least, an actor's on-screen persona.

"I think when we meet celebrities we are first I think influenced by our kind of stereotype of them, by the role that they're playing, by the image they project, by the image the media project of them," he said.

"But ultimately when we actually meet them we are computing in our brain different bits of information that may disconfirm our stereotypes, our positive or even negative feelings about them.

"So, as human beings we're taking this information in. We won't be influenced by a stereotype."

The camera flashes and media scrum that accompanied the actor each day of his trial seemed to belong more to the world of Michael Le Vell.

But once inside Manchester Crown Court he was stripped of his celebrity status and stood in the dock as plain Michael Turner.
Michael Le Vell Le Vell pictured outside court

Except he was not so plain. Even by his own admission the defendant struggled with a serious drink problem twice attending Alcoholics Anonymous.

His own barrister Alisdair Williamson QC accepted that his client was "a weak and stupid man".

The jury were told that Le Vell had cheated on his wife with a series of one-night stands and even had an affair as she was going through chemotherapy - but never a child abuser, the lawyer argued.