The star hit headlines on Tuesday after he gave a controversial TV interview in which he suggested victims of sexual abuse are paying the price for actions in their "previous lives".
He subsequently apologised for his comments, insisting his remarks had been misconstrued, but Roache has reportedly been deluged with threats via social networking websites.
A campaign has also been set up on Facebook calling for the actor to be sacked from his longtime role in the soap.
Police officers in Manchester have now confirmed they are investigating reports the star has been threatened.
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police tells the Daily Star: "We are looking into it. We have a team of officers assigned to monitoring social networking websites to establish whether crimes have been committed."
The threats come after Roache told New Zealand's One News that the public should not be judgmental but be "totally forgiving" of people who have committed child sex crimes.
During the interview Roache, talking about the furore around the Jimmy Savile sex abuse revelations, defended people "on the fringes", especially pop stars, who he said were "caught in this trap" by sexually active young female groupies.
He said: "If you accept that you are pure love, and if you know that you are pure love and therefore live that pure love, these things won't happen to you."
Interviewer Garth Bray replied: "To some people that sounds perhaps like you're saying victims bring things on themselves - is that what you're saying?"
Roache replied: "No, not quite, but and yet I am, because everything that happens to us has been a result of what we have been in previous lives or whatever."
Roache went on to call for anonymity for all those accused of child sex offences because of the stigma they faced even if innocent.
He said: "Paedophilia is absolutely horrendous. Paedophiles should be sought out, rooted out and dealt with.
"But there's a fringe of people who, particularly pop singers, they have these groupies, these girls, who come, they're sexually active, sexually mature, they don't ask for their birth certificate, they don't know what age they may be.
"But they're certainly not grooming them and exploiting them, but they can be caught in this trap.
"These people are instantly stigmatised, some will be innocent, some will not, but until such time as it's proven there should be anonymity for both."
Roache added: "If someone has done something wrong the law will take its course.
"But even so, all of them, whether they are proven guilty or not, we should not be judgmental about anybody, ever.
"We shouldn't go around condemning, unforgiving. We should all be totally forgiving about everything."
He later apologised for the comments and said he was "very sorry for any offence caused."
In a statement he said: "I would never say that victims of sexual offences are in any way responsible for the abuse they have suffered and I offer my deepest apologies if anything I have said has been misunderstood in this way.
"I had no intention of causing any kind of distress as a result of my interview and I offer my utmost sympathies to anyone affected by sexual offences and paedophilia."