Abi Webster left ‘horrified and disgusted’ as she is hit with deepfake porn attack in Coronation Street
Abi Webster is set to be left ‘horrified and disgusted’ as she falls victim to deepfake porn in upcoming Coronation Street scenes, actress Sally Carman has revealed.
The mechanic is set to go through a rough time in the coming days, as she realises that son Seb Franklin’s killer, Corey Brent, is the star of a new documentary.
Corey murdered Seb and left Nina Lucas (Mollie Gallagher) severely injured, after brutally attacking them in a hate crime.
With the documentary shining a light on Corey’s new venture as captain of the prison football team, Abi is disgusted to see him painted as the hero.
‘It feels like she’s been ambushed in her own house,’ Sally explained. ‘Suddenly Corey’s literally in her kitchen, and not only is he in her kitchen, he’s in her kitchen having a great time, being bigged up and being celebrated. It’s just like a sucker punch in her stomach.’
Furious, Abi and Nina storm into the producer’s office at the TV studio, demanding answers.
The following day, Nina and Abi check the website of the Weatherfield Gazette, they’re comforted by the supportive comments, and are thrilled to see that a petition has been started to get the documentary scrapped.
However, Abi’s positivity isn’t set to last, when drug dealer Dean Turnball turns up, asking Abi to help him out of a rough patch.
As Abi sends him packing, Cassie Plummer (Claire Sweeney) watches on, unaware that Tyrone is about to drop some shocking news on Abi after opening an email containing a shocking video.
Later, Abi is horrified to see that the sex video of her has been posted on other websites.
‘It’s something that doesn’t sink in instantly, it’s like, what is this? She can’t quite get her head around it.
‘There’s so much to compute because she has no memory of this video but she also knows that it’s possible because she’s had blackouts and there’s been opportunities for someone to take advantage of that.
‘Her head does go to Dean because he seems the obvious perpetrator.’
Abi is unable to remember ever making the video, as Sally revealed, and though she accepts that it could be her, she struggles to compute that it actually is.
‘It goes back to that time when she was out of control and it’s scary. It’s that whole Jekyll and Hyde part of her personality where she’s dealing with a completely different person. She’s horrified and disgusted but it’s also very hard to compute that it’s actually her.
‘That’s always been the dilemma for her, this is not who I really am. It’s a really tough one for anyone who is forced to go through this, but when you have no memory of it whatsoever, how do you even start to deal with that. Then to see yourself in that most vulnerable position must be horrific.’
Certain that Dean is behind the video, she arranges to meet him, and turns up with a wrench in hand.
As she accuses him of making the sex tape, he insists that he has no idea what she’s talking about, though Abi doesn’t believe him.
‘She goes after him with a wrench, she wants to kill him! Her emotions are all over the place. She’s doing so well and it’s that thing of you can forget who used to be and become a different person but clearly there’s a lot of hurt and damage there. The old protective, fight for your life mode comes out and she just cannot see reason. She’s in there and she’s ready to kill him.’
However, when more videos later pop up and Abi examines them closely, she realises that they are all deepfakes.
‘I think there’s a sense of relief, but I think mostly she’s confused and reeling, thinking who could be doing this and why are they doing this.
‘These aren’t just things you can do in 10 minutes, it takes time and money to do such a detailed convincing deep fake. It suddenly feels much deeper then when she thought it was Dean, he’s a scumbag and it felt horrendous, but this is someone else and they’re out to get me and why. She’s really confused and frustrated and scared.’
Will Abi find out who was really responsible for the videos?