| abstract | - Sharon Duffy was a barmaid at The Flying Horse who dated Ray Langton for a while in October 1972. The cunning builder made a big impression on Sharon by entertaining her in "his" luxury penthouse above Benny Lewis's betting shop, and telling her he drove a Mercedes, when Fairclough and Langton were doing work at the flat. Sharon was behind the bar on the night of the Pub Olympics between The Flying Horse and the Rovers, when she arranged another cozy night in with Ray for the following evening. Discussing her plans with her friend Franny Slater, Sharon was told by Franny that the flat was actually Benny's, and in anger at Ray's deception, she agreed to take possession of the key from Ray, making up a story about wanting to enter ahead of him and cook them a meal, and give it to Franny to make a copy. Sharon then became Franny's accomplice when he stole £5,000 from the flat and framed local loser Jacko Ford for the robbery (although Sharon would have preferred to put Ray in the frame). Sharon's task was to find out beforehand the location of the alarm system and how it worked, which she accomplished while there on a date with Ray. After the robbery, Franny gave Sharon £1,000 from the spoils, which she used to buy a load of new clothes. When the police launched an investigation, Franny and Sharon fled to London. Investigating independent of the police, Ken Barlow was the first to suspect Sharon's involvement after learning about her getting access to the key, but nothing was proved and Jacko was held on remand until January 1973 when Freddie Slack, who had stranded Jacko miles away from Weatherfield while the robbery was taking place to make sure he had no alibi, broke down under police questioning and told the truth. Jacko was released, and the police started hunting for Franny and Sharon.
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