Coronation Street’s Bethany Platt has turned to self harm after her cruel older boyfriend starts to make more demands as part of his malicious grooming ploy.
Fans have watched the teenager – portrayed by Lucy Fallon – fall under the spell of her partner Nathan Curtis as he bribed her into having sex with his friends for money but things are set to get even worse for her over the next coming weeks as she believes the only way she can block out the suffering is by burning herself.
Tina O’Brian – who plays Bethany’s mother Sarah Platt – told the Radio Times magazine: "Audrey spots the burn mark on Bethany’s arm and tries to comfort her by saying that Nathan will be a distant memory soon.
"But later Sarah finds Bethany trying to burn her other arm with a cigarette as she thinks she’s let Nathan down.
"It dawns on Sarah how deep Nathan has drawn Bethany into his web."
Despite her pain, Bethany is still unaware of Nathan’s intentions and, although she’s scared of him, she thinks he’s doing it out of love.
Tina said: "Sarah’s heartbroken and devastated, especially as deep down she’s always had a dark instinct that there’s something not quite right with their relationship. But she’s always pushed that to one side as she didn’t want to lose Bethany by pushing her away. Sarah’s at a loss. Now she feels she’s failed as a mother but this isn’t a black and white situation."
The plot has received some backlash from viewers who believe the footage is too graphic for the time of night the show is aired but Tina thinks Lucy is doing a fantastic job considering it’s her first major storyline since she joined the soap in 2015.
Tina said: "I’m very privileged to be a part of this storyline because it’s so important to make people aware of the dangers that are out there.
"Lucy is doing a fantastic job – it’s such a big storyline to take on but she’s doing brilliantly."
Tina O’Brian finds ‘Coronation Street’ daughter self-harming
