Coronation Street viewers found themselves in tears following tonight's episode as Aaron Sandford finally confessed that he raped Amy Barlow after months of trauma and heartache for Amy and her family.
After Amy insisted that she wanted to drop the case after it got 'too much' for her, she and Aaron ended up having a frank discussion, where Aaron finally confronted his actions.
In the end, Aaron and Amy both ended up in tears as Aaron, played by James Craven, finally faced up to his vile actions on their drunken night out together.
Actor James has now confirmed that he has left the show after the controversial storyline, and believes that the ending is a 'realistic' one which he could see happening in real life as his character fled the cobbles.
Speaking about the storyline and his exit from the show, the talented actor said: "He started to have slight doubts about the court case prior to this, because when he had that first meeting with the solicitor and the solicitor mentioned that even if there's a 51 percent chance that they are leaning in Amy's favour, then it would go to her.
"So that was already concerning him and he was already starting to have doubts about how reliable the outcome was going to be. Then when he found out that Amy's family were selling the business it was really the guilt at that point, it was almost overwhelming for him what he was putting them through.
"He will always care about Amy and whether he did it or not he was already starting to feel responsible for putting her through all of this in the first place, because he's the one who took out the court case."
After he blocked out his actions, it dawned on Aaron that he did commit sexual assault.
"When Amy starts to break it down for him and starts to go through everything, he’s still trying to push it out of his mind the whole time. He doesn’t really want to get to the end of that story because he knows that when she gets to the end of it, that’s when the realisation comes in for him.
"The whole thing is building up to that but he never quite admits it because he can’t admit it."
And while Aaron knows what we did to Amy, he never used the word ‘ rape ’ - something which James knows won't be enough closure Amy deserves.’
"She knows that he knows what he’s done is wrong, even though he never quite admits it, and the fact that he does sort of run away highlights that.
"But I think for Amy it was just so overwhelming because whilst it’s not necessarily the closure that she wanted, in some respects it’s possibly as much closure as she needed."
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
