Coronation Street’s traumatic baby storyline explained: What happened to Toyah Battersby?

Coronation Street fans will be faced with some emotional scenes in the coming days as fan favourite Toyah Battersby opens up about her heartbreaking past and the real reason behind her recent erratic behaviour. As regular viewers will know, mild mannered Toyah is usually known for her calm and even tempered personality, but recently flew off the handle when a group of vigilantes began digging up a rose bush in the local park in search of ‘proof’ that Roy Cropper had murdered Lauren Bolton.

During a tense altercation, Toyah verbally berated the group before smashing their car windows in with a shovel in a moment of unprecedented shock and rage. Luckily, she was able to avoid a criminal charge for the crime after agreeing to pay for the damage, but her loved ones soon expressed concern for the wildly out of character behaviour.

Now, in upcoming scenes, the reason behind Toyah’s outburst will be fully explored as she reveals that she gave birth to a stillborn baby girl when she was just 19 years old and buried the baby in the local park. To make matters worse, when the area is dug up this week, it is revealed that police have found human remains at the site, setting in motion a chain of events that could change several lives forever.

Although losing a child is agonising in it’s own right, Toyah’s own birth story was also compounded with an additional trauma, as she later admits to Nick Tilsley that her baby’s father was the man who raped her, a former friend called Phil Simmonds.

So what exactly happened to lead to that devastating turn of events?

The controversial storyline first kicked off over 23 years ago back in 2001, when Toyah was discovered by Jason Grimshaw after she had been raped and beaten during a night out. Deeply traumatised by the experience, Toyah confessed she had been sexually assaulted to her mum Janice but also revealed she couldn’t recall who had attacked her as she was barely consciousness at the time.

Over the course of the next few weeks, fans were far from impressed by the way the story played out on screen with several criticising the way it had been treated as a ‘whodunnit plot’ to try and identify Toyah’s attacker, with several big name characters, including Peter Barlow named as suspects until DNA evidence had ruled them out.

In the aftermath of the attack, Toyah was given extensive medical treatment and counselling to try and help her process and heal, but sadly the trauma proved to be too intense and soon left Toyah unable to leave the house after developing agoraphobia, a fear of going outside.

During her recovery, many well wishers visited her at home in the hope of providing comfort and helping her to move past the experience, including a close friend Phil Simmonds, who initially feigned concern and hoped to earn her good graces.

Shockingly, during his visit, Toyah began to recall more details about the attack and after recognising his voice, she realised he was the man that had raped her. Terrified of what may happen given the pain she had already experienced at his hands, Toyah attempted to escape and flee to safety.

Sadly, despite her best efforts Toyah was caught by Phil and brutally held hostage until Peter Barlow came to her rescue after hearing her scream. In a truly heroic showdown, Peter kicked down the door and knocked out her attacker before helping Toyah find her way to safety.

Following the harrowing conclusion of the storyline, Phil was ultimately brought to justice and imprisoned for his crime, but only after he bargained with her to come and visit him first in order to secure a guilty plea. Obliging to his request, Toyah did indeed visit him, where the villain tried in vain to justify his actions.

If you’ve been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999

If you have been affected by this story, advice and support can be found at childbereavementuk.org or you can call them on 0800 02 888 40.

View news Source: https://www.ok.co.uk/tv/coronation-streets-traumatic-baby-storyline-32662699