The Lad was an erstwhile friend of Jack Webster who along with another boy informed him that his beloved stepmother Abi Franklin had appeared in a series of online porn videos with her name attached to them. What none of them knew was the videos were deepfakes, created by a vengeful Stefan Brent whose son Corey Brent was imprisoned in young offenders for murdering Seb Franklin in May 2021. Stefan's television production company had made a series of programmes painting the murderer in a positive light, but transmission had been pulled after Abi had created an online public outcry.
Jack had been kept in the dark about all these events by Abi and his father Kevin and the revelation therefore came as a shock. The lad provoked Jack with ribald comments until he snapped and pinned him against the salon. Debbie Webster intervened and separated the two lads, commenting that rather than being absorbed in social media they should be enjoying a kickabout or a snog behind the bike sheds as they did in her day. The lad, not put off, told her that things had changed since the war! Debbie swiftly sent them on their way and took her nephew off to try and answer all his many questions.