Coronation Street star Todd Boyce has suggested that his character Stephen Reid could be tempted to murder again in the near future.
Stephen - the son of Audrey (Sue Nicholls) and half-brother of Gail (Helen Worth) - appeared on and off on the cobbles between 1996 and 2007 but returned on a more permanent basis earlier this year.
In shock scenes which aired in September, Stephen murdered Leo Thompkins (Joe Frost) as the labourer got closer to discovering the truth about Stephen's perilous financial situation.
In next week's episodes, Stephen takes drastic measures and even contemplates poisoning his own mother to get him out of his latest money-related woe - but speaking to press last week, Boyce thinks that murder may now be part of his DNA.
"I do think he [could kill again]," he said. "He's just driven. He's a kind of type-A personality and he's just desperate and desperate people do desperate things.
"Now he has done it once, it won't even feel as bad for him the next time, the end justifies the means."
Explaining Stephen's move to poison Audrey, he said: "He is still having to pay for the cruise for Sam and Audrey and he needs to stop it somehow, so he thinks if he can sow the seed of it not being a good idea for Sam to go on a cruise being looked after by his elderly grandma, maybe that is the way around it.
"So he thinks if he can make it look like she is still having a problem with drink that could solve it. He is in the pub and Nick is there. Stephen gets his mum a double gin and he plans to spike it too.
"This is the new norm for him, anything to protect himself. But has he really got what it takes to go through with it?"
Next week Coronation Street airs Sunday to Wednesday at 8pm on ITV1.
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