Coronation Street spoilers – Traumatised Roy Cropper goes into hiding after vicious attack

With Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) missing and presumed murdered in Coronation Street, the prime suspect is currently Roy Cropper (David Neilson). As unlikely as it seems to people who know him well, the beloved character has found himself at the centre of police investigations – and at every turn he incriminates himself more.

He was the last person who’s known to have seen Lauren, when he called at her flat to give her her wages after sacking her from the cafe. Later he came back to the flat to clean up.

He said this was a favour to Evelyn (Maureen Lipman) who would have had to pay cleaning fees, but to the police it seemed like a person deliberately trying to hide the traces of their own crime.

Dee-Dee (Channique Sterling-Brown), who is working as Roy’s solicitor, is doing everything she can to try to keep him out of jail, but she’s feeling the pressure too.

Since his arrests Roy has been the target of trolls and had abuse in person from members of the public. Even in his own cafe he’s had customers making jibes about him and accusing him of being behind Lauren’s disappearance.

While Roy’s friends are sticking by him and staunchly defend him against people who are cruel to him, the fact is that for a very private person like Roy this his all taking an enormous toll. In desperation, he’s taken to hiding himself away in the flat upstairs.

In coming episodes he ventures into the cafe and answers the phone, only to be met with an earful of abuse. Horrified and shaken, he quickly heads back upstairs to the only place he feels safe.

‘He decides to lock himself upstairs, keep out of the way and not cause any more trouble because he might be causing trouble for other people, I suppose,’ David Neilson reflected. ‘And that is more important to him. He just wants his life back.’

As Evelyn and Shona (Julia Goulding) look after the cafe they want to ignore the phone ringing because of the abuse they’ll most likely be faced with when they answer it.

Nina (Mollie Gallagher) tells them that despite this they have to answer – because Roy is hoping for a call from Lauren’s mum.

He left her a message of sympathy after her number was posted online. Will she get in touch?

And could it further incriminate Roy in some way if she does?