Coronation Street producer Phil Collinson has defended the soap's recent rape storyline featuring Carla Connor and Frank Foster.

The show aimed to highlight the issue of sexual assault, but Phil admitted at St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre's annual conference in Manchester that some mistakes had been made in the portrayal of Frank's recent trial, the BBC reports.

The show attracted criticism for scenes in which Frank, played by Andrew Lancel, confronted his former fiancee and victim Carla (Alison King) outside the courtroom.

Bernie Ryan of St Mary's said: "We have to put a lot of reassurance into the fact that it was a dramatisation of a courtroom event, and that there are support services to make sure they don't come across the perpetrator and are supported throughout the court process."

Phil responded: "I do agree that there were some procedural things in the court that we did get wrong.

"In a show like ours, we are constantly balancing the needs of the drama against the needs of accuracy, and I suppose I would have to agree that there were some procedural things in the court that our attention has been drawn to subsequently, and I can only apologise for that.

"I have to stand by the story that we told and I think we did a good thing in the main."

He added that the storyline had "sent out a very clear message" as there was never any ambiguity over whether the rape had taken place.

Frank attacked Carla in September last year after she called off their wedding, but he was found not guilty by a jury. The character is set to be killed off in a murder who-dunnit storyline.