Coronation Street actor Michael Le Vell has made his first appearance in court accused of child sex offences.

The star, who plays car mechanic Kevin Webster in the ITV soap, appeared at Manchester Magistrates' Court under his real name of Michael Turner.

The 48-year-old has been charged with 19 offences including six counts of raping a child, six allegations of indecently assaulting a child and seven counts of sexual activity with a child.

The alleged offences relate to one complainant and all took place between 2001 and 2010, the court was told.

During the hearing Le Vell, who denies the charges, spoke only to confirm his name, address and date of birth as four members of his family sat in court.

There was no plea and the case was adjourned to Manchester Crown Court on March 20.

Le Vell, of Altrincham, Greater Manchester was bailed on condition that he surrenders his passport, does not contact named witnesses and does not have unsupervised contact with any child aged under 14.

The actor was first arrested in September 2011 and questioned over alleged child sex offences, but the matter was later dropped.

Earlier this month prosecutors said it was in the public interest to charge him with the offences following a review of evidence.

ITV has said he would not appear in any further episodes of the soap, pending the outcome of legal proceedings.