Julia O'Driscoll was the Polish wife of Richie O'Driscoll, a hard-nosed businessman and the owner of O'Driscolls, a clothing company. The pair were ultimately revealed to be modern slavers.
Underworld hoped to sign a contract with him and Aidan Connor came up with the novel idea of hosting a table tennis tournament to break the ice and of deliberately losing as a sweetener to getting Richie's signature down on paper. Richie and Julia, arrived ahead of some of their staff who had missed the motorway junction and he proved to be every bit as competitive as Aidan, boasting that he would play in his suit and wouldn't break into a sweat. Kirk had been instructed to throw his match to ensure an Underworld loss but he misunderstood and managed to win, much to Aidan's annoyance. In the final match of the five, between Aidan and Richie, the latter proved to be the better player - just - and O'Driscolls narrowly won the tournament, though Richie hadn't been fooled by the strategies to soften him up one bit.
A month later, Richie called into factory and invited Aidan to come to a get-together at his house and to bring a date, if he could find one.– Aidan went and took Eva Price with some reluctance, only doing so after she got excited at the idea of going to a posh house. They went in the firm's van as Aidan had some samples to show Richie and were surprised to find it was a formal dinner as Eva had gone very dressed up for a party proper. Things relaxed after the meal Richie and Julia moved their guests to another room for the next part of the evening. Julia goosed a surprised Aidan on the way, saying she was glad they had “fresh meat” there. Eva and Aidan wondered just what they had let themselves in for, but it turned out to be nothing more than a karaoke evening where Eva stepped in and gave a barnstorm performance of Big Spender and making the evening a success.
The two businesses signed a contract and Johnny Connor came up with the novel idea of having real women model their clothes instead of models. Both the O’Driscolls subsequently turned up at the factory to watch the photoshoot with Sinead Tinker being the model. Highly impressed, they went for a celebratory meal at Nick's Bistro.
In the meantime, an unexpected development had occurred: Eva had found a young girl, Marta Zarek, living in the stores of the factory and discovered that she had absconded from the O'Driscolls house on the night of the karaoke. She was a modern day slave to the rich couple, working for them for nothing with threats made against her family in Gdansk and with her passport confiscated. Eva kept the knowledge from Aidan and instead asked vicar Billy Mayhew for his help in sorting out the situation. Eva was invited to another dinner with Aidan at the O'Driscoll's house, this time just the four of them being present. Feeling unable to inform the police what was going on in case Underworld lost their business, Eva told Billy she planned to find Marta's passport in the house and spirit it away. Once the evening began, Julia had to cook, saying she had been let down recently by staff. Eva asked for a tour of the house and spotted Julia's office. Part way through dinner she asked to use the bathroom and used this an excuse to rifle through the drawers and cabinets, telling an appalled Aidan the reason why when he caught her in the act. She thought she had located it, just as the outraged O’Driscolls walked in. Demanding answers, they showed her that the document was Julia’s and Richie ordered them out with Julia claiming that Marta had actually been sacked for stealing a pair of her earrings.
The next day, Richie agreed to a meeting with Johnny where he ripped into the two owners for employing a thief like Eva. Impressed with their work, he laid down a condition for not cancelling the contract, namely that Eva be sacked. Johnny had no option but to agree. Still wanting to help Marta, Billy took her back to the house where he introduced himself and offered to pay for the value of the item she had supposedly taken, asking for her passport back in return. Julia’s demeanour towards Marta instantly changed, as she claimed they had been speaking to her family back home in Gdansk and would sort out matters herself. She then spoke rapid Polish to her, presumably conveying some sort of threat that Billy couldn’t understand. Upon which, a frightened Marta agreed and was ushered into the house with the door shut in Billy’s face.
Still worried about Marta, the two returned to the house a couple of days later where Eva hid the back of Billy’s car where she could hear the conversation mere feet away. Richie and Julia explained that Marta had flown back home the previous day with tickets booked and paid for them, just being pleased to be rid of someone who had so let them down. Just before they left, Eva caught a glimpse of the girl at an upstairs window.
Aidan refused to listen to Eva's claim but at another business meeting, he was leaving their house when he glimpsed Julie coming out of a bedroom which had a padlock fitted and the key in her hand. Meeting Eva in the Rovers, Aidan admitted that he now had doubts about the O’Driscolls’ side of the story and, against his better instincts, told her that Richie and Julia were going to be away at an exhibition in Birmingham tomorrow when they could she and Billy could re-investigate.
Aidan asked Eva and Billy to wait until lunchtime for a further payment to come through from O’Driscolls, which they did. The two saw the O’Driscolls leaving from their car which they parked at the entrance to an adjoining golf club, but the first port of call for the crooked business pair was the Underworld office where another new contract was presented for a monthly commission payment. Later in the day, Johnny spoke to them on their mobile on a business matter and heard that the exhibition had been cancelled because of flooding and Aidan desperately tried to contact the rescuers who had broken into the house by a French window at the back. Having returned early, Richie found Billy and Eva upstairs having unlocked Marta’s prison and threw the vicar to the ground. Julia again spoke in Polish to Marta who replied in English, begging Julia not to hurt her family. Understanding what had transpired, an outraged Eva stood her ground and tried to use Billy’s phone to ring the police, When Richie physically restrained her, Aidan suddenly appeared on the scene and punched him to the ground. The police were summoned and while they were waiting for their arrival, Richie threatened to cancel the contract unless they allowed Marta to leave with no questions asked. Seeing it as a moral issue, Aidan refused.
The two parties made counter arguments against each other to PC Cotter. She lost patience and arrested five of those present: Eva and Billy for criminal damage, the O'Driscolls for offences under section 1 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and Aidan for assault. All were taken to Weatherfield Police Station where ultimately it was Marta's story that was believed. The O'Driscolls were charged while the others were let go. A grateful Marta returned to Poland though Underworld lost the vital business.
List of appearances[]
2015
2016