Coronation Street fans slam ‘awful joke’ storyline as bungling Wetherfield police prove they are UK’s most useless force

IT’S hard to believe anything gets done at the police station in Weatherfield, when so many mistakes are made and so much evidence is ignored.

Coronation Street fans are currently furious, as the only two police in the whole area, DS Swain and Craig Tinker, have decided to charge innocent Roy Cropper – played by David Neilson – with the murder of Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton).

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The loveable cafe owner has been languishing in jail for weeks, starving himself, even though Lauren’s body hasn’t been found, so she might be alive.

Plus, the only evidence against Roy seems to be that his fingerprints were found on a condom wrapper he picked up while he was cleaning her flat – and he dresses a bit weird.

Meanwhile, the real culprit still roams the cobbles free.

The plot hasn’t exactly gone down a treat with fans, with one ranting: “This is quite possibly the worst storyline there has been in a while.”

Another said: “Roy cropper suddenly being the most dangerous man this country has ever seen???? if you don’t laugh you’ll cry, what a flamin joke. this awful show.”

But catastrophic policing is nothing new in the world of soap, as Corrie has shown time and time again how Weatherfield cops are the UK’s most incompetent force – and how CCTV doesn’t exist…

Deirdre Barlow

As far back as 1998, Corrie’s police force were making monumental errors in their investigations.

Following a relationship with conman Jon Lindsay – who’d told her he was a pilot and implicated her in numerous scams – Deirdre Barlow (Anne Kirkbride) was sentenced to 18 months in prison for fraud.

This was despite the fact she had absolutely no idea Jon wasn’t who he said he was.

Deirdre’s jail time was such a big storyline that a “Free the Weatherfield One” campaign was started in real life, and then-Prime Minister Tony Blair even spoke about it in Parliament. Thankfully, Deirdre was eventually released when another of Jon’s victims came forward.

Sally Metcalfe

Deirdre isn’t the only Weatherfield local to have been wrongly jailed for fraud, as Corrie stalwart Sally Metcalfe – played by Sally Dynevor – also was in 2018.

After being found guilty of fraud, money laundering and bribery, Sally was sentenced to a whopping four years in prison.

Meanwhile, her sneaky colleague Duncan, who was actually the real culprit, got just 200 hours of community service.

Two months later, Duncan ‘fessed up – and Sally was freed.

Gail Platt

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Gail Platt – played by Helen Worth – became another wronged woman in Corrie, when she was charged with the murder of her husband in 2010.

While on honeymoon in the Lake District with her new husband Joe McIntyre, aboard their boat, Gail Force, Joe attempted to fake his own death for life insurance money, and told Gail.

After a row on the boat, witnessed by another couple, Gail and Joe went back to shore, with Gail leaving him to go back out on his own.

However, while out on the water alone, Joe was knocked from the boat and did actually drown.

Assuming he’d gone ahead with his plan, Gail told her son David Platt and they agreed to tell people he’d landed a job in the Lake District.

However, when his body was found, the couple who witnessed Gail and Joe arguing came forward and Gail was arrested at his wake and denied bail.

She was forced to spend three months in prison before eventually being found not guilty.

Maria Connor

Yet another wrongly imprisoned female on Corrie was Maria Connor – played by Samia Longchambon.

Maria was arrested for murdering Caz in 2016 – despite a body not being found – after her flat was found trashed with blood on the walls, and a pair of bloodied scissors discovered in her bag.

In actual fact, Caz had framed Maria, and had been spying on her with a webcam.

And even when Maria’s then-boyfriend Aidan Connor spotted Caz alive and tried to tell the police, he was ignored.

Rather than delighted by this new evidence, the police woman said to him: “Do you think that phoning us and saying that you’d seen her would be enough for us to immediately release Maria?”

After exchanging a few more terse words, she helpfully told him: “We care about the truth… next time leave the investigating to us.”

She then told him to go after reminding him that “interfering in a police enquiry is an offence”.

Pat Phelan 

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Pat Phelan – played by Conor McIntyre – was one of Corrie’s most notorious villains.

During his time on the cobbles, between 2013 and 2018, he committed fraud and rape, murdered two people – and was heavily involved in the deaths of two others.

Anna Windass – who he blackmailed into having sex with him to protect her son Gary – was constantly trying to tell anyone who’d listen, including the police, about how evil Phelan was.

No one would listen to her, and instead, Phelan framed her for Seb Franklin’s ladder accident to get her out of the way – getting her sent to prison.

When his crimes finally came to light, Phelan’s daughter Nicola Rubinstein and his wife Eileen Grimshaw turned against him and watched him fall into the sea.

Despite no body being found, police were content that Phelan was dead, and it was case closed.

However, a month later, he returned to Coronation Street for a final showdown with Anna – in which she got her ultimate revenge, stabbing him to death. 

Stephen Reid

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Another serial killer who Weatherfield police allowed to roam the streets for over a year was Stephen Reid – played by Todd Boyce.

Audrey Roberts’ son turned up on the cobbles in 2022, pretending to be a hotshot businessman, while actually embezzling money from his ex-wife Gabrielle’s company to pay his debts.

When Jenny Connor’s boyfriend Leo Thompkins found out the truth in October 2022, Stephen killed him and hid his body – with him becoming his first of three victims.

Leo’s dad Teddy was next when he began to find out too much, and then the last was one of his clients Rufus Donahue, who found out he’d been spiking Underworld owner Carla Barlow’s coffee with LSD to make her believe she was having a mental breakdown and take over the business.

When the police found Leo and Teddy’s bodies in September 2023 – nearly a year after Leo was killed – no one, not even the police, suspected Stephen was behind the killings at first.

This was despite the fact he’d told Jenny he’d been in touch with them both after they died – and he was always getting very involved in Jenny’s life, even becoming her partner eventually.

When the police finally worked everything out, it was too late and, as he attempted to flee using Jenny as a hostage, Peter Barlow ran him over and killed him.

Despite the police seemingly not caring about the disappearances of Leo and Teddy for so long, they were very quick to arrest Peter for murder rather than self-defence.

After a lot of questioning, he was eventually let off.

Daisy Midgeley’s stalker

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After briefly meeting him in the hospital, Justin Rutherford began stalking Daisy Midgely – played by Charlotte Jordan.

He started by sending her flowers, then incessantly contacting her on social media, and even getting a job as a delivery driver on Coronation Street in order to see her more.

She went to the police over and over again, even keeping a diary of everything he did, but they told her they couldn’t do anything until he actually attacked her.

Daisy attempted to take out a stalking order against Justin, but it was rejected as Daisy’s fiancé Daniel Osbourne attacked Justin after he went inside their house through the back door to harass Daisy.

After everything else failed, Daisy lured Justin to Victoria Gardens, where she purposely mocked him in front of police officer Craig, so he would lash out and attack her.

He was arrested for assault and charged, but later released on bail – despite all the previous evidence of stalking Daisy had collected.

Because the police didn’t take Daisy’s case seriously, on her wedding day, a vengeful Justin came to the Rovers Return, where she works, and threw acid at her – with it actually hitting Ryan Connor, who jumped in to defend her.

He was found guilty for the acid attack eventually – but it could have been stopped if Weatherfield Police got their act together!