Corrie women in the dock - Deirdre Rachid

All together now! 1-2-3...
"I didn't...do...any of it!"
As we almost reach the verdict of Tracy Barlow's murder trial, it's her mother, Deirdre, who is today's woman in the dock. Perhaps Coronation Street's most infamous jail bird, Deirdre was wrongly imprisoned in 1998 after being framed by pilot-cum-tie-salesman Jon Lindsay in what was one of Corrie's most talked about stories ever.

In mid-1997 Deirdre was having a run of luck when she was promoted to manageress of the Weatherfield branch of Sunliners and also started a relationship with suave pilot, Jon Lindsay. On one of their dates Jon turned up in his pilot's uniform and Deirdre was completely smitten by him and his luxurious life. It wasn't long before Ken Barlow spotted Jon working in a tie shop at Manchester Airport and told a stunned Deirdre who confronted Jon. After he begged for forgiveness and promised that he would never lie again, Deirdre realised that she was in love with Jon and moved into a posh house with him in Didsbury.

Not long after Deirdre had started to settle into her new life away from Weatherfield, she discovered that Jon was married with children and that he was still living with his wife when he was supposedly "away on business". Deirdre confronted Jon and his wife and proceeded to take back the money that she had loaned him, drawing £500 at a time from the cash point. When her card was declined at the bank she made enquiries and found herself at the centre of a massive fraud case. Jon had stolen the identity of another man to take out credit cards and spent thousands living the luxurious life of a pilot. Jon implicated Deirdre in the scam and maintained that she had minipulated him into a relationship and into fraud.

To the horror of most of the residents of Coronation Street, Deirdre was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment as the mastermind behind the fraud scam. Lindsay received a suspended sentence as the judge deemed him only to be an accessory. "Free the Weatherfield One!" campaigns sprang up across the country and Tony Blair even made comments on Deirdre's trial in the House of Commons. It was during her time in prison that Deirdre met the monster that was/is Jackie Dobbs who eventually brought us the hapless Tyrone. Deirdre was freed after three weeks when another woman came forward who had also been conned by Lindsay. [Elsie Tanner]