Vile Joel confirms his next teen victim in Coronation Street – and it’s someone we know

In a devastating twist, Coronation Street revealed that Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton)’s killer was none other than apparently nice guy solicitor Joel Deering (Calum Lill).

Lauren disappeared from her flat in February and when blood was found in the flat the police soon suspected that something very bad indeed had happened to the teenager.

Roy Cropper (David Neilson) soon found himself as their chief suspect, for no greater crime than befriending Lauren and trying to clean up her messy flat after she’d apparently left.

Nathan Curtis (Chris Harper), the man who’d previously groomed and raped Bethany Platt (Lucy Fallon), seemed a much more likely culprit when he returned to Weatherfield and started showing a bit of an interest in Lauren’s disappearance.

Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien) even took the risky step of planting evidence in his van to try to get the vile criminal away from Weatherfield – and her daughter – for good.

But in a shock reveal we saw in flashback scenes that Joel and Lauren had previously had a sexual relationship. We saw Joel grabbing the traumatised young woman and throw her to the ground before repeatedly beating her with a blunt instrument.

Nathan, however, has been charged with the crime – leaving Joel to carry on with life as normal in Weatherfield, including his relationship with Dee-Dee Bailey (Channique Sterling-Brown).

And while he’s at large, we have to worry about the safety of all the other young women of Weatherfield.

In upcoming episodes Joel tells Dee-Dee that he’s sad that they’re keeping their engagement a secret from his parents.

Meanwhile, he’s at the police station and spots Sabrina Adetiba (Luana Santos) – Max Turner (Paddy Bever)’s friend and former girlfriend. Sabrina is in a distressed state because her brother has been arrested.

Smooth Joel hands her his business card and tells her to give him a call. As he heads inside, he looks smug – pleased to have found a potential new victim.

This scene is an uncanny echo of Joel’s very first scene, which in hindsight pointed to him being the killer all along.

Dee-Dee and Roy went to the police station after Lauren was arrested for smashing up Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls)’ salon to meet the duty solicitor, who turned out to be Joel in his first appearance. He told Lauren to ‘look after herself’ and then went on his way.

Could Sabrina be headed for the same cruel fate that befell Lauren?