Toyah Battersby

Toyah Laverne Battersby (previously Lee) was portrayed by actress Georgia Taylor between July 1997 and February 2003. Toyah left the Street in early 2003 after being betrayed by her boyfriend, John Arnley, and her best friend, Maria Sutherland. John and Maria slept together behind Toyah's back and Maria got pregnant but aborted the baby. Toyah eventually found out and left the Street headed for London with her old flame, Spider Nugent, in his Juice Van.

Life on the Street
Toyah first appeared, along with mother Janice, stepfather Les, and stepsister Leanne, in 1997. Toyah was a fairly typical schoolgirl who was struggling with the normal ups and downs of teenage life. She soon developed a crush on her neighbour, Spider, who introduced her to environmentalism, as well as the occasional cannabis joint. It was Spider who helped Toyah save Theresa the turkey from the Battersby's dinner table at Christmas. Toyah became very enthusiastic about the "eco-warrior" lifestyle; so much so that she poured anti-freeze all over the freezers in a grocery store while protesting the sale of prawns in the said shop.

Toyah and Spider eventually became a couple after spending the night together on the Red Rec while watching the solar eclipse (amongst other activities). They lived together at Emily Bishop's house for a short while, but she put them out after they disobeyed the rules regarding sex in the house. They pitched a tent on the Red Rec to live in but unsurprisingly, this did not last long. They wound up living in Linda Sykes's old bedsit at Flat 3, 6 Arnica Street, and for a while, Spider paid the rent with the money he was earning at the benefits office. When Spider left his job on principle, he decided to take a trip to India. Toyah couldn't face going that far away and Spider left without her.

The night before Easter Sunday in 2001, Toyah was having a night out with mechanic Sam Kingston. While on her way home alone, Toyah was raped and left for dead in the ginnel, only to be discovered the next morning by Jason Grimshaw, out for an early morning run. Toyah was forced to tell her mother what had happened and relive the event while relating her story to the police. Matters were complicated because Toyah was only semi-conscious at the time of the attack, and therefore did not know who her attacker was. After much finger-pointing at various male residents of Coronation Street, it was discovered on 30th April 2001, that Toyah's rapist was Phil Simmonds, a man she had befriended after meeting through Spider. Phil had come over to her house to comfort her after the ordeal but when he called her name while she was in the kitchen, Toyah had a flashback and realised that her attacker was sitting in her living room. Toyah tried to pretend that everything was alright, but Phil realised that she had remembered what he'd done to her and grabbed her around the throat. Toyah was saved when Peter Barlow (who had himself been accused of the crime, but was ruled out by DNA evidence) heard her screams and broke down the door. Phil was eventually sent to prison, but Toyah was traumatised by everything that had happened to her.

After the ordeal, Toyah returned to college and moved in with Fiz Brown and Maria Sutherland in the flat above the hairdressers' and tried to move on with her life. After a brief fling with Andy McDonald, she started dating one of her former professors, John Arnley, in 2002. Toyah left him after discovering that her best friend Maria had had a one-night stand with John in January 2003, which resulted in her falling pregnant by him. Despite the fact that Maria had an abortion, Toyah couldn't handle John's infidelity and left for a new life in Sheffield, before reconciling with her ex-boyfriend Spider Nugent and moving to London with him, as he had started his own juice company there.

In October 2013, Leanne went to stay with Toyah for a week or so after discovering her husband Nick's infidelity.

Quotes
"Dad...Happy Birthday" (First line, to Les Battersby)