Template:26 April

26th April 1978: Len Fairclough appeared at Weatherfield Magistrates Court on a charge of being drunk and disorderly. The arresting officer, WPC Rogers, had taken an inebriated Len into a police car when he knocked on his own front door to get Rita to identify him to the policewoman, only for Rita to deny knowing him. The officer also alleged that Len had opened the car door during the journey, and that he'd made suggestive remarks to her. Len's defence was that he was on Alf Roberts's stag night, that he'd opened the door as his seatbelt was caught in it, and that the young officer had misinterpreted his chit-chat as a come-on due to her inexperience. Taking the stand, Rita revealed that she'd denied knowing Len as a joke, although the prosecution got her to admit she was angry at him for getting drunk. The Magistrates found Len not guilty, although the incident had already cost him his place on the council, and the hitherto unmentioned incident in the police car put him in the doghouse when he and Rita got back home.
 * For more information see Episode 1803 (26th April 1978).