Dee-Dee Bailey has vowed to bring down slimy solicitor Joel Deering in Coronation Street.

Earlier this week, Dee-Dee and DS Swain discovered that Joel is the father of Lauren Bolton’s child and

was responsible for her disappearance earlier this year.

The villain wasn’t going down without a fight, so he accused Lauren of trying to terminate their child using off-market drugs. In reality, Joel spiked Lauren’s soup to induce labour.

In Wednesday’s dramatic episode, a distraught Lauren confided in Dee-Dee that her placenta had tested positive for drugs. Dee-Dee stewed over Joel accusing Lauren of trying to kill her baby.

Related: Best streaming services 2024 — including Disney Plus, Netflix, iPlayer and Apple TV+

At the precinct, Joel spun a complete lie about Lauren buying the dodgy drugs online and then using them to try to terminate her pregnancy.

DS Swain didn’t believe a word of Joel’s fabricated alibi, instead accusing him of preying on young women. The detective brought up the allegations that Joel assaulted her daughter Betsy last week.

While Joel was able to leave under caution, he soon faced questioning from Dee-Dee. Joel confessed he’d had an affair with Lauren, but insisted he wanted to save his relationship with Dee-Dee.

Dee-Dee ordered Joel to hand over his phone so she could check his messages. Joel was already one step ahead of her, having replaced the SIM card in his phone to cover up the damning texts.

Joe thought he’d got away with his lies, yet Dee-Dee confided in Lauren that she’d installed a tracker on the solicitor’s phone so they could monitor his location at all times.

Dee-Dee promised Lauren that she would help her bring down Joel once and for all, telling her: “I said I’d bring down Joel, and unlike him, I keep my promises.”