CORONATION Street has finally confirmed who killed Lauren Bolton - and the actor behind the character has revealed he’s got even more victims.
The troubled teen - who was played by actress Cait Fitton in the ITV soap - disappeared in February leaving signs of being brutally attacked and murdered.
And in tonight’s episode viewers finally discovered who was responsible.
It began with Sarah Platt being caught about to plant evidence - Lauren’s hair - in Nathan Curtis’ van by police detective Kit Green.
He stopped her before searching Nathan’s van himself and finding some dodgy USB data drive - and some further evidence.
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With Nathan arrested, Roy Cropper’s friends and family became hopeful that he could be freed.
Though when the duty solicitor turned out to be Joel Deering, Nathan looked to have a decent defence on his side - until DS Swain and Kit revealed their evidence.
They had found Lauren’s hair in Nathan’s van and with the other evidence stacking up, they charged him with Lauren’s murder.
Kit told him: “Nathan Curtis, in consultation with the CPS we have been advised to charge you with the murder of Lauren Bolton.”
Nathan was outraged, shouting: “This is a set up, someone planted that hair. This is Sarah Platt. I caught her snooping around my van, you were there.”
A flashback then revealed that Kit purposely pulled out a hair from the bag he’d taken from Sarah and planted it in Nathan’s van.
Joel demanded to know if Nathan’s claims were true, and Kit insisted that he saw Sarah and she didn’t go near his van - insisting he called DS Swain but she didn’t pick up.
Swain checked her call log and saw he had called so Joel said he accepted that Nathan was lying.
But there was an intriguing look between him and Kit that Swain appeared not to notice.
Meanwhile in prison Roy was being forced to hang himself by evil Griff at knifepoint, before begging to be able to call Nina and say goodbye.
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When they spoke, Nina told him that he was being released as Nathan had been charged and Griff was stunned.
Police then stormed the cell and Roy was freed from Griff’s vile plan - and released from prison.
At his welcome home party in the cafe, Evelyn gave a touching speech and Joel was there to support Dee-Dee.
But he told he had had a long day and needed to go home, but when he went outside he was met with Hope Stape who handed over a necklace she found in his car while cleaning it for him.
Another flashback revealed that Joel brutally attacked Lauren in her flat and took the necklace Hope found from her.
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Now actor Calum Li has spoken for the first time about the shock twist - and how he’s struggled to keep the secret for a year.
He said: “I've known this for over a year. It was last May that I got sent the breakdown for Joel saying that he was a charming character who's got a dark side.
“When I got the screen test they said, ‘Okay, this is what Joel is going to be doing’. I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, like this is a really terrible person. And I've got to hide in plain sight for a year.’”
The actor added: “I felt a huge weight of responsibility on my shoulders to do well and not give it away and not play some cliche, because the things Joel has done have happened to people in real life.
“So I had meetings with charities and did research. I watched documentaries and read psychological papers to create as much truth as possible.
“The thing that I kept in my mind was I would never want anyone who'd experienced anything like that to be watching something on screen that didn’t feel authentic and feel offended.”
Callum also revealed how Joel’s cruelty would be shown - and how he has more victims than just Lauren.
“He is very messed up, he sees women in two ways,” he said.
“He has these women he adores and puts on a pedestal like Dee-Dee and then there are the other women, the young girls that he sees as lesser in some way in his eyes and takes his hatred for women out on them.
“When he sees these vulnerable young women probably from broken homes, with criminal records and no one looking out for them he is like a shark he hones in on them, coercively controls them and emotionally manipulates them using his power and money.
“If you were to sit down and try and ask him why he did it he would justify it as just helping them. When no one else would.
“It is a repetitive pattern of behaviour, he engages with these young girls and afterwards there is the element of guilt so he tries to be a good person and be better towards Dee-Dee.
“Then the guilt wears off and he needs another ‘fix’, he has a euphoria/guilt cycle. It is a pattern of destructive behaviour. And we will see in the coming weeks that he is still doing it.”
However with this being soap, justice will be served - eventually.
“I mean, the longer he hides the more chance there is of him making a mistake,” added Callum.
“He’s been good so far in that he's been engaging in this behaviour as long as we have seen him, and Lauren was attacked in February. And no one's seen him.
“No one's caught him out until now but they don’t actually know they have caught him out. But I think the longer it goes on for, the more chance he’s got of slipping up and I think he knows that.
“You can see that in him getting more and more anxious that the slightest thing could bring his world crumbling down around him, you know, even just the fact that he slept with Lauren.
“That's a breach of trust alone and will be enough to end his career and relationship plus murder on top of that, his life would be over you know.
“Everything that he values in his life, his job, his fiance, his freedom? So the stakes couldn't be higher. But when he panics, the more chance there is of something going wrong.”
