| abstract
| - Alex Warner is the nephew of Cathy Matthews and first visited her in September 2015 when she was staying with Roy Cropper in his Victoria Street flat. Cathy was determined to make him a cake to mark his visit and told Roy that it had to be a wedding cake, complete with figures on the top, as he had had a thing about such events since he was eight years old. From this, Roy gained the impression that he was still a child and when he collected the figurines from Cathy's house, he also collected a horse-racing game named Escalado that he had enjoyed playing himself when a boy. When he returned to Roy's Rolls, he was momentarily taken aback to find that Alex was twenty-eight years old and had Down's syndrome. He recovered his manners quickly and welcomed Alex, being thoroughly taken with the young man, as was everyone who met him. A skill of his was reading palms and he read Anna Windass but their session was interrupted when his mother rang Cathy to say that she and her son had had a row over his taking a girl to the pictures when he was already going out with another! Alex gave the sincere excuse that he liked both of them and asked if could stay overnight to avoid his mother. Although Cathy was dubious, Roy happily allowed him the use of his sofa for the night. Together with Anna, they played and thoroughly enjoyed the Escalado game but were embarrassed when Alex described Roy as Cathy's boyfriend. They put him right and he took them to the Rovers where Alex read Michelle Connor's palm while Cathy confessed to Anna that she would like to be more than a good friend to Roy. The next day he enjoyed a good breakfast, cheekily asking that it be put on his tab. Cathy later took him to the station to get the train home. Alex refused the offer of the Escalado game as he would have nothing else to play next time he came. He left a message with Cathy for Roy, saying that he had enjoyed his visit. Roy reciprocated, as it had reminded him of the times that he and Hayley had looked after foster children. During the following month, his distraught mother Nessa informed Cathy and Roy that Alex had gone missing. With the couple offering their help to find him, Ken Barlow and Audrey Roberts also joined in the search. Having been away from home overnight, Alex was found safe and well in the Rovers, stating that his phone battery had died while he was staying at a friend's house. Alex turned up at Roy's Rolls once more in January 2016. Having revealed that he'd been in another disagreement with his mother and lost his job, Alex asked if he could hang out in the café for the day. Later in the month after yet more problems at home and still without employment, he was offered a temporary position at the café while Roy would be away in Hastings, looking after his mother Sylvia. Roy returned to Weatherfield in May, welcomed back warmly by Cathy and Anna but while talking with Cathy he got upset by all the noise Alex was making with his mates upstairs. Roy stormed up to the flat and was outraged to see spilled drink and pizza all over the carpet and forced them all out. At the end of the day Cathy and Alex packed up their belongings but just before they left, Roy returned say that he was sorry for his outburst and allowed them to stay in his flat. Later that month Alex witnessed Cathy being run over by a distraught Carla Connor and was hospitalised. The next month Alex drove Roy's car to take his new friend, Gemma Winter, to the cemetery to visit the grave of her best friend Callum Logan. While out Alex was caught driving over the limit and a speeding ticket was issued to Roy. He quickly realised that Alex was driving and upon his return, Alex confessed to Roy and Cathy. Roy intended to call the police to tell them who was behind the wheel, but Cathy persuaded him not to and eventually Alex turned himself in.
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