Coronation Street spoilers: Daniel Osbourne’s controversial sex past haunts him as he is accused of murder
For someone who likes to come across as deeply rational and sensible, Coronation Street’s Daniel Osbourne (Rob Mallard) has made some questionable decisions over the years, often regarding women.
Some of these come back to bite him in upcoming episodes, as the search for missing Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) gathers pace.
When Sean (Antony Cotton) goes to looks at Lauren’s flat with a view to renting it, he’s put off by what looks like bloodstains on the curtains. Following this discovery DS Swain (Vicky Myers) and Craig (Colson Smith) are soon at the flat having a look for themselves.
It’s Max Turner (Paddy Bever) who throws suspicion in Daniel’s direction. When Daniel and Bethany (Lucy Fallon) call to ask whether there’s any news about Lauren, Max questions Daniel about the tutoring sessions he previously had with the missing girl.
He realises the dates that Daniel gives him don’t match up with what Lauren previously said.
Max goes to the police station to tell DS Swain about Lauren’s O-Vidz account. While he’s there, DS Swain wants to know more about Lauren’s secret boyfriend. Max replies that he never actually knew who Lauren was seeing, but suspected it was Daniel.
DS Swain decides to talk to Daniel about his relationship with Lauren, and suggests that she may have paid for their tutoring sessions with sex.
Of course Daniel denies this but DS Swain brings up the awkward situation he got into when Summer Spellman (Harriet Bibby) developed a crush on him and he was accused of ‘blurring the lines’ in the teacher/pupil relationship.
There’s also Daniel’s previous relationship with Nicky Wheatley (Kimberly Hart-Simpson), who lost her job at Weatherfield High when Max exposed her as a former sex worker.
Daniel met Nicky when he paid for her to dress up like his late wife Sinead (Katie McGlynn) in the aftermath of her death.
As Swain dredges all of this up, Daniel realises that the police seriously suspect him of having something to do with Lauren’s disappearance and he asks for a solicitor.
And when he hears a radio broadcast in which DS Swain suggests Lauren was murdered, he realises he could be in serious trouble.