08:10
Tieng Anh Vui
A top prosecutor has denied Coronation Street actor Michael Le Vell, who was cleared of abuse charges, fell victim to a "celebrity witch-hunt".
Nazir Afzal, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Nobody should be above the law".
He said cases are assessed on merit regardless of public profile.
During Mr Le Vell's trial it was suggested the amount of recent celebrity prosecutions may have led the jury to think it was a "witch-hunt".
The 48-year-old, who plays Kevin Webster in the soap, was cleared of 12 charges including rape and indecent assault at Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday.
'World gone mad'
Prosecutor Eleanor Laws QC told the jury not to link the case to other high profile child sex abuse cases.
She said: "Before we started this trial, some of you may have thought there seems to be a lot of prosecutions of celebrities.
"'Is there some kind of witch-hunt? Has the world gone mad?'
"No-one likes to think that someone they liked or admired has done anything like this."
Speaking at a conference on grooming and child sex exploitation in Blackburn, Mr Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West, said cases are taken to court based on what evidence exists and whether there is a realistic prospect of prosecution.
Mr Afzal made the initial decision not to charge Mr Le Vell after he was first arrested in September 2011, but that was later over-ruled by Alison Levitt QC, the principal legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions for England.
He said: "I absolutely detest this word 'witch-hunt'. It is not a witch-hunt.
"We look at the evidence. We follow the evidence. We present the evidence.
"I am not shy about pursuing these type of cases and will continue to do so.
"Invariably if it is child sexual abuse it will be in the public interest to prosecute it."
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