Joel’s vile scheme to target expectant mother Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) involved drugging her with pills designed to induce early labour. In shocking scenes, Joel hoped that Lauren’s unborn child, for whom he is the biological father, would not survive.

However, his malicious actions backfired when Lauren was saved and swiftly taken to hospital by Max Turner, (Paddy Bever) resulting in the baby’s survival. With Lauren being around six months pregnant, she was terrified for her baby’s life as she suffered excruciating pains.

At the hospital, she was informed that her waters had broken and she was in premature labour, with the baby on its way. Lauren gave birth to her child who was then immediately whisked away by doctors, leaving Lauren distraught by the events.

She was oblivious to the fact that wicked Joel had orchestrated everything to eliminate her baby, while he continued to conceal his crimes from the residents of Weatherfield. Now, viewers believe he made several mistakes in the latest episode and could finally be unmasked, after his cruel plan backfired, reports the Mirror.

Audiences discovered last month that Lauren was still alive and hiding after Joel assaulted her and left her for dead in February. Flashbacks revealed that Joel had been manipulating Lauren for months, pressuring her into a sexual relationship and bribing her with money and gifts to ensure her silence.

But when Lauren wanted out, he brutally attacked her, almost killing her. Lauren discovered she was pregnant with Joel’s child, a fact that Joel found out last month along with the truth about her fate.

Lauren has since returned to Weatherfield, claiming to be staying with a friend, but in reality, Joel has set her up in a flat.

He’s been lying to the teen that he’ll help her escape to Ireland to evade trouble and cover his own misdeeds, however, his true plan involved drugging her and locking her in the flat so she’d lose the baby.

Joel was visibly shaken to learn the baby had survived, sparking hopes among viewers that Lauren will uncover his deceit after being locked in at the flat.

A remark to Dee-Dee about the baby not making it also has fans speculating whether she might unravel the mystery, while there’s buzz around whether Max will discover the truth about Joel’s ownership of the flat where Lauren was located.

Taking to Twitter, one viewer said: “How is Joel going to explain what Lauren was doing in his flat because there’s no way Max is going to keep his mouth shut about where he found her. With any luck Lauren’s baby will be ok and Joel will crap himself.”

Another added: “Haha now Joel knows Max knows where Lauren was staying!! it’s all fitting in to place that he’ll finally get caught!!!!!!!! yessss!!