CORONATION Street’s Sean Wilson today reveals his huge soap comeback was destroyed by an unfounded historical sex claim.
The Martin Platt actor, 59, was dramatically axed in the summer after filming scenes with ex-screen wife Gail.
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He was cleared by police ten days ago but said: “My whole world was blown apart.”
Devastated Sean today tells how his life fell apart in just eight minutes.
He was told he was being axed pending a police inquiry into an alleged indecent assault from 1997 — and left in the dark on the details.
It comes as…
ITV announced this summer he was exiting for personal reasons, leaving cast, crew and fans baffled.
Last week police cleared Sean and said there would be no further action over the claim, made by a woman with links to the soap.
Speaking for the first time about his ordeal, Sean told The Sun on Sunday: “My reputation was ruined in just eight minutes — my whole world blown apart.
“I had no idea who had made this complaint or anything about it but I lost my job. It’s been hell. I’ve been low all the way through.”
In July, The Sun exclusively revealed Sean was returning to the cobbles after 19 years for a blockbuster Christmas storyline with departing Gail (Helen Worth).
Sean had got the call in February and was excited to agree a four-month, ten-episode contract.
He said: “I jumped at the chance to reprise my role as Martin.
“Helen and I go back a long way and I wanted to be the person that she left with — and I think the viewers did as well.”
But after filming ten scenes in two weeks during July, he got an email from bosses on August 1.
Sean added: “I was having a great time on set.
“It was like rolling back the years until I suddenly received an email which truly stunned me.”
The email read: “I am writing to request a meeting with you at the Coronation Street studios.
“This is to discuss a historical allegation of a sexual nature which has been made about you in the past few days relating to when you were previously under contract to the programme. We will realise this will come out of the blue for you as it has for us.”
Sean went to the studios and contacted his partner of five years Carol Hammond plus agent Katherine Stonehouse who joined the meeting via a Zoom call.
He explained: “I was so confused. I had no time to prepare.
“It took place ten minutes after I responded to them.
“I was suddenly confronted with three executives who said they had received an allegation that I had put my hands up a woman’s skirt.
“They also said police had contacted them and told them they had referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
“I was in bewilderment. They said they had to cut the contract and protect their cast.
“I told them I knew it hadn’t happened and I deserved a chance to convince them. But they said once it had become a police matter they couldn’t do anything.”
Sean made his Corrie debut as nurse Martin in 1985.
I was suddenly confronted with three executives who said they had received an allegation that I had put my hands up a woman’s skirt
Sean Wilson
His character wed Gail in 1991 and they had son David. The family’s storylines were watched by 21million in the soap’s heyday.
Sean, who left in 2005, insists his behaviour on and off set was always exemplary.
He added: “I told the bosses I was a professional. I’d been there 21 years and there had never been an allegation made against me. I wasn’t told the name of the person and told it only happened some time in 1997 and the person had worked in connection with the show. All I could think was that this was preposterous.
“I was in total shock. I was being thrown out the door after 21 years of a glittering career.
“We asked ITV to supply us with the details of the police officer who contacted them so we could initiate an informal voluntary interview.
“But they said they couldn’t give us that information and we’d have to wait for the police to call us.
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“Two weeks went by and nobody got in touch.”
In desperation Sean hired two lawyers to track down the police officer dealing with the complaint and find out if he was under investigation.
He also hired a media lawyer after his departure led to intense speculation about what happened.
He added: “I had no way to clear my name and save my reputation.
“ITV put out a statement that I had stepped away for personal reasons and I wasn’t able to speak out about what the real reasons were.
“My career was in the balance and the police hadn’t come forward with any information.
I had no way to clear my name and save my reputation
Sean Wilson
“I got the lawyers to ring the police stations in Manchester.
“We finally got through to an officer who had just been assigned the case after weeks of trying.”
On October 25, Sean attended a voluntary interview with a detective constable at Longsight police station.
He said: “The detective said there were no witnesses and the person complaining hadn’t told anyone about it, and they couldn’t say when it happened in 1997.
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“I was also shocked to hear the allegation was entirely different from what ITV had said.
“The police said it was a touch on the backside over the individual’s jeans, on one occasion, and not a hand up a woman’s skirt.
“Police also said they had never contacted ITV and it couldn’t have been passed to the CPS as they hadn’t even assigned the case to an officer at that point. They also told me the name of the person who I didn’t recognise.
“Hundreds of people work for Coronation Street who you never meet and it was one of those. They don’t work there now.”
Sean was “relieved beyond belief” when on November 21 police said there would be no further action.
During our conversation he became visibly upset when he admitted: “The past few months have taken their toll as I had nothing to go on.
“When I got that call that was the first time I cried in four months. I just let out all the pent-up emotions. What got me through it was knowing the truth. There were times I’d find myself sitting in the garden just staring out at nothing for a while.
“I would think I’d better get my head together because I didn’t want to sink. The entire time I felt submerged in water but I didn’t want to sink into depression.”
The past few months have taken their toll as I had nothing to go on. When I got that call that was the first time I cried in four months
Sean Wilson
Sean has struggled to tell his son Callum, 26, and daughter Maisie, 24, about what happened but was planning to sit down with them after speaking to this paper.
He said: “How do you tell your children that you’ve been wrongly accused of this? But they’ll have to be OK about it won’t they? Because their dad’s innocent.”
And it’s not just emotionally Sean has been left in pieces. He lost out on his lucrative four-month Coronation Street contract and had to shell out thousands on lawyers.
He added: “It’s been a great cost to me. Lawyers are expensive and I needed to hire them to protect me.
“ITV did pay me the contractual amount of guaranteed minimum episodes I was due to film, but I lost money on the future residuals, like episode repeat fees.”
Sean also had a wider plan for a big showbiz comeback with hopes of a panto stint, more telly and a possible turn on I’m A Celebrity.
Now he doesn’t know if he is ever going to be marketable again.
Turning to Carol for support, Sean added: “It was going to be a nice, new start for us. I was going to be appearing on a flagship ITV show. There were two tweets put out prior to me arriving on the show. It was a very popular return and my agent and I were going to work on that.
“I had plans for an autobiography. I am a keen writer and have penned three cookbooks.
“I could have been making thousands of pounds a week but instead I have become persona non grata throughout this whole sorry episode. My career is in tatters.”
I could have been making thousands of pounds a week but instead I have become persona non grata throughout this whole sorry episode. My career is in tatters
Sean Wilson
Sean, who turned to cheesemaking after acting, said he was angry at the complainant and says ITV “got their facts completely wrong”.
He added: “It took weeks of my own investigative work to find out what ITV had said was 180 degrees different from the complaint. But what can I do? I understand there has to be a process but people need to realise not everybody is guilty.
“This whole entire thing has been unbelievable. No matter who you are, or where you work, you are just one call away from ruin.”
Sean’s 21 years on Corrie saw him become a household name.
Gail and Martin’s ten-year union is seen as the most successful of her six marriages.
It survived a brief fling in 1993 but ended after Martin had an affair with nurse Rebecca Hopkins in 2000.
Sean quit the soap in 2005 over a controversial plot which involved Martin seducing an underage girl. Sean then vowed to never work on Corrie again. But he briefly returned in 2018 for a rape storyline involving David (Jack P Shepherd).
Sean had been due back on our screens from October, culminating in the Christmas specials.
But the ten scenes he filmed ended up on the cutting-room floor.
His storyline was replaced by one featuring another of Gail’s old flames — Jesse Chadwick (played by John Thomson).
Devastated Sean admitted: “I certainly couldn’t watch anything they used to substitute my performances.
“It is very difficult. I don’t know if I can ever go back.”
ITV declined to comment.
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