Lauren’s Story: TMOF and Coronation Street
With several lifelong Corrie fans in our team, we were thrilled to be approached by Coronation Street to advise on one of their major storylines of the year - that of the grooming and sexual abuse of young LAUREN BOLTON (Cait Fitton).
Lauren is a very vulnerable 18-year-old girl who is being exploited, coerced and controlled by solicitor JOEL DEERING (Calum Lill).
This storyline has been developing over a number of months with Lauren first receiving gifts and money from a secret “boyfriend”. She was presumed dead following her sudden disappearance in February, leading police officer DS SWAIN (Viky Myers) to incorrectly arrest and detain ROY CROPPER (David Neilson) for her murder.
In May, it was revealed that it was Joel who was behind her disappearance. Flashback scenes showed him giving her money and gifts before brutally attacking her and leaving her for dead.
Cait has done a spectacular job of portraying Lauren’s vulnerability, and just why she was an ‘easy target’ for Joel to exploit and abuse. Lauren has subsequently returned to the Street and has now given birth prematurely to Joel’s baby.
The Maggie Oliver Foundation has had many meetings and conversations with the team at Coronation Street, speaking at length about the details of our daily work and the impact of sexual abuse and exploitation on vulnerable girls like Lauren, and advising on all aspects of the storyline.
We have taken survivors we have advocated for to share their own experiences with the scriptwriters and producers, as well as ‘Lauren’ and ‘Joel’, thereby giving them a unique insight into the way the police investigate these crimes and the real-life impact this has on survivors. They have also drawn on Maggie’s personal expertise as a former detective, in particular her work on Major Investigations around child sexual abuse and exploitation on Operation Augusta in Manchester and Operation Span in Rochdale for example. As well as her own journey as a police officer trying to do right by the victims she was supporting but being prevented from doing so by senior managers.
"For many months we at The Maggie Oliver Foundation have been offering our advice and working closely with the team at Coronation Street to help to develop this storyline.
We have been blown away by the way Corrie have portrayed the vulnerability of Lauren, and the authenticity of their depiction of the grooming process. It is really admirable how careful they have been to do all they can to ensure their portrayal of this life destroying crime truthfully reflects the experiences of real-life victims and survivors, whilst still creating the suspense and the maximum amount of dramatic effect that Corrie has long been renowned for.
From what we have seen on our screens so far, the writers, actors and producers have done a brilliant job at creating an accurate depiction of how these scenarios play out in real life. We’re so very, very proud to have been a key part of this process and so helped to ensure that the voices of victims and survivors have been front and centre of this storyline!"
Our contact details can be found ITV’s Advice page here.
