In late November 2009, it was announced that character Loretta Jones (Melissa Walton) would be revealed to have killed a child when she was twelve-years-old. A "Hollyoaks" spokesperson said, "The drama is about how Loretta reacts to Chrissy's arrival back in her life and how she copes with all the memories coming back." The storyline was criticised due to its similarities to real events, such as the Murder of James Bulger. The mother of Bulger, Denise Fergus, stated her outrage of the storyline while speaking to "Click Liverpool". She expressed her disgust as she had not been consulted, and felt that the producers were making a "horrific murder" into a topic for entertainment to gain viewers. She demanded a meeting with producers since she felt that the storyline was a "horrible insult to the memory of [her] beautiful son." A spokesperson for Channel 4 stated that the storyline was not based on a real-life event and that producers did not intend to "seek to recreate real events". Despite the storyline not being based on Fergus' situation, producers pulled the storyline from transmission since they felt that they had a duty to "deal with sensitive issues in an appropriate way".