New pictures have emerged which show her uncle David (played by Jack P. Shepherd) and Shona Ramsey scouring the streets for young Bethany.
As the pair desperately search for David’s niece, they stumble across a schoolgirl called Lara, who appeared in the ITV soap earlier this week as the girl sold for sex in Nathan’s grooming ring.
They ask passersby in a park where homeless people sleep first, and hold up pictures of Bethany in the hope that someone will have some helpful information. But when they finally come across the girl known as Lara, she’s wearing scruffy clothes and has a sullen expression, holding her life in her bag.
David and Shona appear to be begging the girl to help them, but the pictures suggest she is unwilling and too afraid for her own welfare to risk getting found out for assisting them.
Fans can therefore suspect that Bethany (Lucy Fallon) has been kidnapped by the gang who groomed her, which culminated in a rape scene viewers found incredibly uncomfortable to watch last night.
Actress Lucy recently revealed that not even this devastating moment will be enough to make her character wake up and see Nathan (Chris Harper) for who he really is.
“She knows that things are dodgy and wrong but she doesn’t know that she is being groomed – she might not even know what that means,” she said.
The 21-year-old soap star also revealed that a real-life sex exploitation story brought her to tears.
“I went to Manchester to put some flowers down in St Ann’s Square [following the Manchester terror attack, which will be honoured by the soap] and a lady of about 60 came and tapped me on the shoulder and said: ‘Can I just whisper something to you?’ Lucy told press, including Express.co.uk.
“I thought she was just going to say that she really liked Corrie, but she said, ‘I was sexually abused by my dad when I was younger’, and she got really upset and said she really appreciated what I had done.
“It makes me feel really proud when people say stuff like that,” Lucy added.
Meanwhile, Coronation Street boss Kate Oates has teased that Mary will be instrumental in helping Bethany to face up to her situation: “The storyline that we set up at Christmas where we learned that Mary had been raped when she was young and had this forgotten son.
“I think people might think we have forgotten about that but we always knew that we wanted to build a bond between Bethany and Mary which you’ve seen us gently seed in over recent weeks.”
The producer added why she thinks Bethany will trust her over everyone else in her life, when she explained: “It’s that outside voice, I think – she trusts Mary in a different kind of way so maybe Mary can help break down some of those walls.”
Coronation Street continues tonight on ITV at 9pm.
Daily Express :: TV and Radio Feed
