Keith Richardson

Detective Constable Richardson was a plainclothes police officer who led the hunt for Alan Bradley when he fled the scene after assaulting Rita Fairclough in March 1989. Alan had attacked Rita and tried to strangle her when she confronted him about the loan he'd taken out on 7 Coronation Street in her late husband Len's name. After being interrupted by Martin Platt and Jenny Bradley, Alan had made off in his car.

Richardson arrived at No.7 just after an ambulance took Rita to Weatherfield General. Taking over the questioning from two officers who responded to the initial 999 call, he interviewed Martin and Jenny at the house before going to the hospital to question Rita, however none of them could offer any suggestions regarding Alan's place of refuge. Although not unsympathetic, Richardson appeared skeptical that neither Alan's daughter nor his employee at Weatherfield Security Systems could offer any help at all, but stopped short of accusing them of protecting Alan.

After the initial round of questioning, Richardson concluded that Jenny was the person Alan was most likely to contact for help and began shadowing her. His tactics garnered criticism from Mavis Wilton when he called at the Kabin to speak to Jenny, with Mavis demanding that they do more to find Alan. The detective flatly replied that he just had a notebook and a pencil to work with, not a magic wand. However, his line of investigation bore fruit later that day as, having followed Jenny and Martin to Gatley train station and observed Martin wait in the car for Jenny, Richardson realised she had to be meeting her dad, and Alan was immediately apprehended just after getting off a train, having arranged to collect his passport from Jenny there. When he saw the police, Alan made a run for it, but Richardson and a colleague, Eddie, grabbed and cuffed him, and bundled him into a police van.

1989

 * Wed 15th Mar
 * Mon 20th Mar
 * Wed 22nd Mar