Craig Reed

Craig Reed was an old friend of Lydia Dingle (then known as Jenny Finn) from her time spent in a children's home as well as the father of Lydia's stillborn son, Toby Finn.
Craig Reed lived at a children's home when he was young. He was placed next to Jenny Finn in his maths lessons, who he also lived with at the children's home. She soon fell pregnant by him and in November 1990, Jenny went missing. She had given birth to a boy in the top-floor bathroom of the children's home, although he was stillborn, wrapped him in her jumper and buried him in some woodland which would later be the site of Hotten Academy.
In August 2023, Craig reconnected with Lydia for the first time in 33 years after spotting her at a jobs fair at the Hide. After the fair, Craig and Lydia went to the café for a coffee where Lydia broke the news to Craig about their son.
Lydia eventually worked for Craig and he helped her stepson Samson Dingle for his work experience. Craig starts to obsessively fall in love with Lydia despite him being friends with her husband Sam Dingle. In early September 2023 Lydia decided she wanted to resign from her job. She meets him in his office to give him her resignation letter. The conversation gets awkward as he question her why she is leaving. She makes an excuse saying she has to leave but Craig decides to question her even more about this saying if Sam is treating her right. She wants to leave but Craig continues to talk about how she is the one and pins her down on the couch. He begins to force himself on him despite her pleas. He then tries to get close to her even after the attack but she pleas for him to take her home and he obeys. Lydia is clearly shocked but continues to work there afterwards and Samson continues his work experience. 2 days after attack he sees her looking at his office where he raped her. During this encounter Lydia tries to tell him that he raped her, but he denies this however, saying that it is okay to feel guilty to sleep with your husbands friend. In the last months he constantly terrifies and torments Lydia, including showing up at Home Farm unexpectedly and having a good friendship with Samson. She reports to the police that she has been raped. Despite this, Craig also starts problems between Sam and Lydia. He feels like Lydia is ignoring him for no reason as she is not showing him any sort of attention since the attack but he didn’t know at the time. Lydia is in Craig’s office again and Craig offers her a drink and tries to play it cool. Suddenly, Craig and Lydia argue about her and Sam. She yells at him saying that it is nothing wrong with her and Sam and tries to leave but Craig grabs her and she gets scared and begs him to let her go. Craig is perplexed and asks her what’s wrong and she replies by saying he raped her. In October 2023 she told her family about her being raped which took a toll on the family and Sam. Lydia later then told Samson who was in disbelief but went on to confront him about it. She begins her court case against him after he is arrested. Sam is horrified by the discovery of Lydia getting raped. So he and his half brother Cain Dingle plot revenge against him. Few days later on 26th October Belle Dingle exposes Craig telling everyone that he raped her and he and the Dingles clash. On (27th October 2023) Craig was found dead and the Dingles were all suspects. Everyone shared their alibis one by one. Cain and Sam’s alibi is that they kidnapped Craig but they didn’t kill him but Lydia got to say her last words to Craig. Belle’s alibi is that she had an argument with her boyfriend Tom King and she was pushed down on a table splitting her head open. Charity Dingle and Chas Dingle alibi is that they were having a drink. Aaron and Vinny’s alibi is that they argued. Caleb Miligan and his Nephews Nate Robinson alibi was that Nate had an argument with his wife Tracy Robinson and later on Tracey and Caleb shared a passionate kiss but stopped it. The rest were Mandy Dingle who had a heart to heart conversation with Eric Pollard. Last was Marlon Dingle who shares about his all clear from his stroke recovery. After all of this Sam reveals saying it was him despite Cain warning him not to . We get a flashback when Cain, Sam and Craig are in the road as Cain and Sam yell at Craig. Craig tries to plea with them but Cain wants Craig to pay so he gets in his car for Sam to finish the job. Craig tries to talk out of it but he gets kneeled in the stomach twice and brutally beat up by Sam as Cain watched. Craig got away bruised and bloodied as he limped away. Craig is in a field and he comes across Kim Tate and her horse. He tries to plea her to help him but she rebuffs him. He then asks how could she be so careless. Kim then tries to move away from him but Craig refuses to move. The horse’s legs rise kicking Craig in his head killing him instantly. Despite being dead he continues causing problems. Sam was arrested for the suspicion of his murder and Lydia breaks up with Sam for beating him up.
==List of appearances==
===2023===
*Thu 17th Aug (1)
*Thu 17th Aug (2)
*Fri 18th Aug
*Mon 21st Aug
*Tue 22nd Aug
*Wed 23rd Aug
*Thu 24th Aug (1)
*Thu 24th Aug (2)
*Fri 1st Sep	
*Mon 4th Sep
*Tue 5th Sep (1)
*Tue 5th Sep (2)
*Wed 6th Sep
*Thu 7th Sep (1)
*Thu 7th Sep (2)
*Mon 11th Sep
*Tue 12th Sep
*Thu 14th Sep (1)	
*Thu 14th Sep (2)
*Tue 19th Sep
*Wed 20th Sep
*Thu 21st Sep (1)
*Wed 4th Oct
*Thu 12th Oct
*Fri 13th Oct (2)
*Thu 19th Oct (1)
*Thu 19th Oct (2)	
*Thu 26th Oct (1)
*Thu 26th Oct (2)
*Fri 27th Oct
*Mon 30th Oct
*Thu 2nd Nov (1)
*Thu 2nd Nov (2)
Category:Emmerdale characters
Category:2023 minor characters
Category:2023 deaths
Category:1975 births