More horror as violent killer is back to haunt Coronation Street weeks after paedophile’s return
Corey Brent (Maximus Evans), the teenager who murdered Seb Franklin (Harry Visinoni), will return to haunt Coronation Street soon.
In 2021, Corey was part of a harrowing hate-crime storyline that saw him and his gang attack Seb and Nina (Mollie Gallagher).
The plot saw Seb die as a result of his injuries. In the devastating aftermath, Nina experienced memory loss as a result of the trauma. Eventually, as she recalled the walk she took with Seb before the attack, she was able to remember what happened and who was involved.
Corey’s part in the attack was only exposed as a result of Stu Carpenter (Bill Fellows), who was homeless at the time. He had found the bag containing Corey’s clothes from the night of the attack and when it was handed to the police, they were able to arrest and charge him.
The ITV soap worked closely with the Sophie Lancaster Foundation in this storyline. Sophie and her boyfriend Robert Maltby were attacked in a park back in 2007 because of the way they looked. As a consequence of the attack, Sophie died from her injuries and her mother Sylvia chose to set up the foundation in her daughter’s memory.
This narrative and character of Corey will be revisited soon, much to Abi Franklin’s (Sally Carman) horror.
The twist about Abi comes days after confirmation the character will fall victim to deepfake porn.
The vulgar crime sees the false imagery of targets superimposed into sexually explicit videos using AI.
Next month, a video is sent anonymously to Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall), and it shows Abi seemingly in a sex video. Incredibly realistic, the fake video will leave Abi – and her loved ones – shocked.
Metro.co.uk understands that a trigger points comes via a face from her past – which might well be Corey – and it will kick start a dramatic story for Abi and Kevin (Michael Le Vell).
The motivation behind the campaign and the long term consequences remain to be seen, but Coronation Street is seeking to spear-head the issue in the latest awareness raising plotline.
Outgoing producer Iain MacLeod, who has since taken up a promoted role that oversees both ITV primetime soaps, alluded to the storyline at the beginning of the year, admitting that it had been temporarily shelved.
‘We were going to see her reconnecting with somebody from her past, who transpires to be the last possible person you’d expect to find in her backstory,’ he told Metro.co.uk.
‘[The story]’s not gone away, but it’s been pushed down the order somewhat. It got pushed aside. I won’t tell you by which story, because then you could probably work out what the Abi story was!
‘There was another story that came along. Actually, strategically, it made more sense to do that one first. So it’s still there, but it’s just not yet in the show.’