Ryan Cawood

**Ryan Cawood** is the only son to the deceased Becky and Tommy, as well as the grandson to Catherine, Richard and Lynn.

As a newborn Ryan's mother, Becky, took her own life after struggling to deal with the fact that she was raped by Tommy Lee Royce and had given birth to his child. Becky's body was found by Ryan's grandfather, Richard. His grandmother, Catherine and great-aunt Clare had raised Ryan with the agreement of not putting him into the foster system. However, this decision led to Catherine and Richard's divorce and Daniel's estranged relationship with his mother.

### Relationship with Family

Due to the circumstances surrounding Ryan's existence, many relatives have been estranged from him as they grieve for Becky and blame Tommy, his father, for destroying their lives. His own grandfather, Richard initially despised Ryan and was absent in the early stages of his life, as was Daniel. However, this changed when Catherine and Clare took Ryan to Daniel and Lucy's meal, where they announced their pregnancy, as he realised that Richard and Daniel were his relatives and he wanted to form a relationship with them. He asked Catherine if he could play football with Richard; initially, he rejected the idea but after much convincing, Richard agreed to get to know Ryan. As for Daniel, initially he was not receptive to building a relationship with Ryan. In Series 1 at Catherine's birthday party, Daniel got drunk and exposed the circumstances surrounding Ryan's birth to everybody, making it clear that he did not forgive Catherine for keeping custody of him and blamed him for Becky's death. This changed in Series 2 when he and Lucy divorced and he was homeless as he stayed at Catherine's and formed a close bond with Ryan.

### Behaviour in School & Relationship with Tommy

At school Ryan was a troublemaker and got into trouble quite frequently with other students in the classroom. Catherine always feared that this was a result of Tommy's behaviour and she believed that it had genetically passed down onto Ryan.

In Series 1, after a visit to Lynn Dewhurst's house, Catherine discovered that she was aware of Ryan being Tommy's son. Frightened, Catherine forced Lynn to promise that she would not tell Tommy about Ryan as she wanted to protect her grandson and prevent them from building a relationship. However, when Tommy visited Lynn prior to keeping Ann Gallagher in her cellar, she admitted that Ryan was his son and that he shared the child with Becky Cawood, who had died not long after giving birth. Tommy was unaware of Becky's death and their child together. He hid behind a wall close to Ryan's school not long after the revelation and confronted Catherine about Becky. She quickly chucked Ryan into the car to prevent him from hearing the truth and threatened to "chop (Tommy's) dick off and make (him) swallow it". She revealed that Becky had committed suicide after giving birth to Ryan, who had been conceived through rape at the hands of Tommy. Angrily, Tommy shouted to Ryan that he was his father whilst Catherine sped off into the distance. As a result of this, Ryan was now aware of his father. Not long after this incident, when Tommy was on the run for being wanted for the kidnap and rape of Ann Gallagher and the murder of PC Kirsten McAskill, he saw Ryan in the street cycling home after school and approached him, reminding him of their relation and invited him back to a houseboat on the canal that he had broken into for accommodation. He hoped that by taking Ryan he could escape arrest and go on the run; he also wanted to hurt Catherine. After meeting up with Tommy at the houseboat several days after school, Ryan invited his friend Cesco to go with him despite Tommy warning him not to tell anybody of his whereabouts. This angered Tommy and he reiterated to Ryan that he should only visit alone. The next day, Catherine and Clare were made aware of Tommy and Ryan's visits through Cesco's mum and they contacted the police before visiting the canal themselves. Meanwhile, Ryan and Tommy were inside the houseboat. After an altercation, Tommy grabbed Ryan and poured petrol all over them both, causing him to scream and alert Catherine to the scene. As she entered the houseboat, Tommy threatened to set fire to them both. Catherine and Tommy fought and Ryan ran out of the houseboat before Tommy was arrested for his crimes.

In Series 2, Tommy falsely turned to religion in prison and exploited many religious women into helping him achieve his ultimate goal; getting close to Ryan. One woman, Frances Drummond, stole her sister's identity as a highly regarded teacher and began working at Ryan's school to get close to him. This plan worked as she was assigned as Ryan's reading partner, where she portrayed Tommy in a positive light and preached the idea of forgiveness to him. This led to Ryan asking questions about his father which raised Clare's suspicions. On Ryan's birthday, Frances secretly sent him an expensive gift on Tommy's behalf. When Catherine realised who it was from, she sent the present back and was determined to find out who had been introducing Ryan to his father. Clare admitted that he had been asking questions about Tommy prior to his birthday and it became apparent that Frances had been taking advantage of Ryan as she believed that Tommy wanted to marry her when he was released from prison. Catherine confronted her about this and she was later made aware that she was under false pretences regarding her engagement to Tommy. However, she had encouraged Ryan to write a letter to Tommy and gave him the address of his prison, and the series concluded with Tommy receiving the letter - his plan had worked and he had found a way to contact his son.

In Series 3, Catherine discovered that Clare and Neil had secretly been taking Ryan to visit Tommy in prison after he had been relocated to Leeds. This angered Catherine and she confronted Clare about it after following them to Leeds in a different car so that she couldn't be identified. At the visit, Tommy invited Ryan to his court hearing in Sheffield and continued to make plans with Ryan after his release, despite his release being impossible due to the extent of his sentence. This raised suspicions that he was planning to escape. When Catherine heard about the court hearing, she urged Ryan not to go as Tommy's behaviour was predictable and she didn't want him to make a negative impression on Ryan. However, Ryan secretly went to the hearing instead of going to school, and upon Tommy's acknowledgement of his son's presence he evaded court. However, Ryan was unaware that Richard was also present at the hearing as he had been sent by Catherine to keep an eye on Tommy's behaviour and they bumped into each other after the chaos emerged. After Tommy's escape, he was placed in a property by the Knezevic gang, who he had been working alongside to escape prison. Tommy had remembered Ryan's gaming handle whilst playing on the console and decided to contact him. They exchanged messages before calling each other through the headsets; this is how Tommy discovered that Ryan and Catherine were not at home due to his escape and he pitched the idea of Ryan going with him to Marbella as his escape route. Ryan refused but Tommy encouraged him to consider it. The next day, Tommy was being moved elsewhere by Velijko Knezevic and two of his men, but Tommy viewed this as a trap and murdered them all before escaping, preventing further contact with his son. Ryan was then interviewed by the police because he had been visiting Tommy in prison, where he revealed their conversation through the games consoles. This led the police to the property that Tommy had been staying at but he had evaded; Catherine discovered that he had broken into her house after Winnie contacted her. Tommy went into Ryan's bedroom and looked at photo albums of his son and Becky, realising that he had lived a good life with his grandmother before a confrontation with Catherine, which led to his suicide.

### Rob Hepworth

Rob was a PE teacher at Ryan's school and his coach in the football team, where Ryan played as a goalkeeper. Ryan was not a strong player in his position and he was known for being cocky at school, which was made worse when he was with Cesco. After an altercation regarding rumours of Rob having an affair with a fellow teacher, Ryan and Cesco were chased on their bikes by Rob, who was driving his car. The following day, Ryan and Cesco found that their bikes had been chained together by Rob. Cesco admitted that it was him who started the altercation the previous day, but Ryan continued to argue with the teacher resulting in his place in the football team being revoked. Another incident between Ryan and Rob was when Rob's car had cock and balls graffiti on it by one of the students. Rob presumed that it was Ryan who had committed the vandalism and requested that Catherine would come in, in an attempt to humiliate Ryan and get him into trouble. However, Rob was unaware that Catherine was the police officer that had arrested his wife for possession of drugs just days before, and she had suspicions that he was abusing her due to the bruises on her arms. Catherine searched Ryan's pockets for any traces of marker pen and asked Rob if he had any evidence; his only evidence was the altercation regarding his position on the football team. The headteacher at Ryan's school concluded that Rob's assumption was not enough for the school to punish Ryan and the case was closed. After this, Rob started being kind to Ryan in school and offered him advice and support, and returned his position on the football team to him. As the series concluded, Rob had been accused of murdering his wife, Joanna. Although he was cleared of this crime, it was revealed that he obtained inappropriate images of children on his mobile phone.