Note: The following article contains discussion of sexual abuse that some readers may find upsetting.
Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street's Daniel Osbourne was left horrified tonight (December 8) as he was accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with his teenage student, Summer Spellman.
Max Turner told the school head earlier this week about Daniel and Summer, which both of them categorically denied in the first episode.
But then Summer told Paul Foreman that the two did have an emotional connection (which was wishful thinking on her part) and Paul believed Summer was being groomed.
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Obviously, Paul has a tragic history involving exploitation, so he decided to report Daniel to the police, who brought the latter in for questioning.
In the second episode, the police let Daniel go after Summer confirmed that she wasn't the woman Daniel was hiding in his flat, but they issued him with a warning to stay away from her.
Daniel figured out that Paul reported him and had a go at him, but Paul claimed that he'd brainwashed Summer and told him to avoid her. Tracy Barlow threatened to kick Billy Mayhew out, and called Paul an anti-vaxxer. Summer also lashed out at Paul, saying that Daniel had a girlfriend the entire time.
Related: Coronation Street star Jamie Kenna reacts to rumours of Phill Whittaker's dark side
Daisy Midgeley (Daniel's now ex-girlfriend) found Summer crying in the park, and the teen confessed how she had a huge crush on him and she wanted to be with him one day, saying: "I misread the signs. But there were no signs."
Daisy then bluntly told Daniel that he absolutely knew Summer had a crush on him, and his good intentions combined with his ego "blurred the lines", and even if it wasn't intentional, she was misled.
Will she go to the police with this information and help clear up this mess? Or is it as Daniel fears, and his teaching career has gone down the toilet?
Coronation Street airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on ITV.
Read more Coronation Street spoilers on our dedicated homepage
If you've been affected by the issues raised in this story, you can access more information from Rape Crisis England and Wales, who work towards the elimination of all forms of sexual violence and sexual misconduct, on their website or by calling the National Rape Crisis Helpline on 0808 802 9999. Rape Crisis Scotland’s helpline number is 08088 01 03 02.
Readers in the US are encouraged to contactRAINN, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800-656-4673.
Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer and resident Welsh person at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016.
In his time he's covered a host of live events, interviewed celebrities big and small and crowbarred a countless amount of great/awful (delete as appropriate) puns into articles.
A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe's main interest is in video gaming. Although particularly a PlayStation gamer, he plays across Xbox, Nintendo and PC/Steam Deck, and likes to keep tabs on many games he's not got the time to play.
Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish (which you really should do).
