Owen Longford was a representative of an American distribution company, alongside Angelique Simmons, that was interested in Underworld's Nippersnapper products.
Owen and Angelique attended a meeting with Sarah Barlow in March 2023 with regard to a business deal over the Nippersnapper range. Uninvited, recently fired Underworld manager Stephen Reid interrupted the group and declined their offer asking for a higher figure. The pair agreed to raise their offer and Sarah reluctantly congratulated Stephen and insisted to Underworld owner Carla Barlow that he deserved his job back. Carla accepted but during a later meeting with Owen and Angelique she belittled Stephen by having him make the tea. Stephen laced Carla's tea with LSD, something that he had been doing regularly but this time he increased the dosage, and during the meeting the LSD kicked in causing Stephen and Sarah to step in and cover for her erratic behaviour. After Owen and Angelique left, Stephen and Sarah celebrated the deal with the workforce only for a paranoid Carla to order everyone to leave the factory.
Following Carla's latest ordeal, rival businessman Rufus Donahue worked out Stephen's involvement, as he had previously supplied him with LSD, and began blackmailing him into taking his offer over that of Owen and Angelique's despite it being poorer. Seeing no possible way to take Rufus's deal over the superior offer, Stephen suggested that he could pretend to have taken Rufus's deal in order to encourage Owen and Angelique to increase their offer and then Stephen could give Rufus the difference without him even needing to lift a finger. Rufus initially agreed but when he later tried to negate on the deal Stephen murdered him by lacing him with LSD and making it look like he accidentally drowned in his swimming pool.
With Owen and Angelique's deal now being the only one on the table, Stephen showed them around the factory and they happily placed a second order. During celebratory drinks at the Rovers, Owen caught the eye of landlady Jenny Connor which displeased Stephen as, despite being engaged to Elaine Jones, had affections for Jenny himself. A jealous Stephen later watched Owen and Jenny together and falsely warned Jenny about Owen's history as a sleazebag.
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List of appearances[]
2023