Justin Rutherford was the stalker of Daisy Midgeley.
Justin arrived at Weatherfield General in December 2022 with his mother who was dying from cancer, where he encountered Daisy Midgeley, who was going for a mammogram and an ultrasound after finding a lump in her breast. After she comforted him, Justin developed a romantic obsession with Daisy and started sending her flowers. Soon enough, Justin began stalking Daisy by sending messages to her on social media and getting a job as a delivery driver in order to see Daisy more.
After Daisy's attempts to report Justin to the police failed, she punched him in the face when she thought that he was giving her more flowers, when he was actually on his way to Shuttleworth's to make arrangements for his mother's funeral. Daisy attempted to take out a stalking order against Justin, which failed after Daisy's fiancé Daniel Osbourne attacked Justin after he went inside their house through the back door to harass Daisy.
After failing to get the police involved in stopping him and being warned by his estranged sister Karen about his obsessive and violent behaviour, Daisy lured Justin to Victoria Gardens and berated him for his attitude towards her. Justin lashed out and attacked Daisy, which was witnessed by local police officer Craig Tinker, who arrested Justin for assault. Justin was charged but later released on bail.
On the day of Daisy's wedding, a vengeful Justin confronted her in the Rovers and threw acid from a glass at her. However, to the pair's surprise, Daisy's friend Ryan Connor jumped in between them and was hit in the face and upper body by the acid, whilst Daisy got a small amount on her chest. Justin fled the pub, but was later seen in his car by Daisy in the hospital car park and she advanced on him. Justin locked himself in his car and tried to drive away, but Daisy stood in front of the car and demanded to know why Justin did what he did. Justin tried to justify his actions by stating that he did it out of love for Daisy and did not want to hurt anyone. He continued by saying that he believed that if Daisy looked different, she would not be wanted by "shallow people", but he would have looked after her and made her feel beautiful and perfect and in time, Daisy would have seen him as a good person. Daisy then tricked Justin into thinking that he had earned her love and made him open the driver's door of the car. Daisy then took the car's keys and pressed the horn of the car to alert DS Swain and the other police at the hospital, who arrested Justin for GBH with intent and for breaching his bail.
At his plea hearing, Justin pleaded not guilty for the acid attack.
At his trial, Justin tried to deceive the jury by claiming that he was only at the Rovers on the day of the attack to talk to Daisy about her having second thoughts on her wedding and that it was Ryan who had tried to attack him with the acid, but spilt it on himself. However, the jury saw through Justin's deception and found him guilty of the attack. As he was led out of the courtroom, an unhinged Justin said that he still loved Daisy and that they would be together again. He was given a ten-year sentence.
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- The character was credited as "Man" on his first appearance. His contributions in both Episode 10882/3 (20th February 2023) and Episode 10884/5 (22nd February 2023) were uncredited and voice only. His appearance in Episode 11087/8 (17th October 2023) was as a figure in Ryan Connor's hallucination.
List of appearances[]
2022
2023