Coronation Street’s newest villain Mal Roper targets the object of his creepy obsession Bernie Winter (Jane Hazelgrove) by brutally cutting off her head…in a photograph.

There are so many baddies in Weatherfield right now, the price of housing on the Cobbles must be at an all time low. Why else would anyone want to live on a street riddled with killers, liars, schemers, abusers and Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard)?

The only type of wrong’un missing from the Street’s extensive rogue’s gallery is a stalker. Or at least it was until Mal Roper (Tim Treloar) came along.

The first time Mal crossed paths with Bernie was at a hotel in town, where she was knocking back the booze hard in a desperate attempt to deal with her grief for her friend and son-in-law Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank), who was tragically killed in the Corriedale crash. Although Bernie didn’t exactly cheat on her doting husband Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin), she did take drugs with Mal and woke up nursing the hangover from hell.

Sick with guilt and shame, Bernie just wanted to focus on her marriage and forget the whole Mal incident ever happened.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one on the street with a connection to the Cobbles’ newest Mister Nasty. It turns out, Mal is the husband of the mysterious Alice, the pen-pal who Roy Cropper’s (David Nielson) been writing to, and their correspondence was starting to turn romantic.

But after the initial shock of his wife’s apparent betrayal, Mal has taken the infidelity seemingly in stride, even sticking around in Weatherfield to work as an electrician to do some rewiring in Roy’s flat. Fans have been suspicious of this bizarre behaviour, and they’re not wrong. Why would Mal accept a job from Alice’s emotional affair partner… unless Alice never existed at all.

It’s certainly a theory. Whatever the true reason, the unstable cable guy seems to be in Weatherfield for one reason and one reason alone – Bernie.

Despite his assurance to Bernie that he’ll be out of her hair as soon as his work is done in Roy’s flat, Mal’s in no hurry to go home. He’s been trying to force a connection with Bernie by claiming they have a shared interest in crystals, as a ploy to charm her into spending some ‘quality time’ together at his flat.

This puts poor old Bernie in a very sticky situation which puts her marriage at risk. How can she let her unwanted admirer down gently without him spilling all the debauched details of their drug-addled night to Dev?

It’s a difficult tightrope to walk, and Monday’s episode on February 23rd will see Mal’s harassment finally Bernie too far when she loses her temper… and her head.

With Dev away to spend some daddy daughter time with Asha (Tanisha Gorey), Mal picks his moment to be alone with Bernie when Roy sets off to the bank. Seizing the opportunity, he locks the café doors before declaring his undying feelings to Bernie.

Horrified, Bernie rejects Mal’s advances. Mal does not take it well. Showing his true colours, Mal’s attention turns sinister leaving Bernie visibly terrified. What will Mal do?

Sure enough, everything goes a bit Fatal Attraction when Bernie later discovers that ‘someone’ has cut her head out of he wedding photos.

Things get even worse for Bernie soon, as this new video shows the moment Kit Green (Jacob Roberts) makes a discovery about Mal.

Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) hands Kit a file and explains a bloke was found in the street with a head injury. He glances at the file and is in shock to recognise the name listed.

In the scenes after this, Kit calls at the hospital and discovers from a doctor that Mal is in a critical condition.

Was Bernie responsible?