Coronation Street star Christopher Harper has confirmed that he has left his role as paedophile Nathan Curtis.

Chris, 47, returned to the cobbles earlier this year to reprise his role as Bethany Platt’s (Lucy Fallon) abuser.

In a shock soap twist, he was revealed to be a subscriber of Lauren Bolton’s (Cait Fitton) O-Vidz account amid her disappearance.

Nathan very quickly became prime suspect, after running into Bethany and her boyfriend Daniel Osbourne (Rob Mallard), and her mum Sarah (Tina O’Brien).

Convinced that he was behind Lauren vanishing, the residents tracked him down to a building site and warned him to leave Weatherfield.

Gary Windass (Mikey North) attacked him, and later used money from the sale of Underworld to bribe him into leaving. Sarah then plotted to plant evidence in his work van, but was caught in the act by bent copper Kit Green (Jacob Roberts).

Desperate to be the one that ‘solved’ the case, he ordered Sarah away before placing Lauren’s hair bobble himself.

He was arrested for breaching his restraining order, and after being represented by scheming solicitor Joel Deering (Calum Lill), who was the man actually responsible, was sent down.

In the last week we’ve seen Sarah questioned by DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) over her involvement in his framing.

But it seems that Nathan’s reign of terror is firmly over – as actor Chris is taking to the stage in a new touring production of the play ‘Art’.

‘Coronation Street is not a place for the journey of a paedophile to recover and become loved,’ he told Digital Spy.

‘That’s not a thing you should be doing on a soap. And so, I was absolutely adamant that if Nathan ever came back, then he mustn’t be forgiven. But I did also know that it was about time he would be coming out [of prison], so I did wonder.’

He continued: ‘When I got the call from the producers, it smacked me sideways. I was shaken, because the story was so emotional at the time, and it made such a difference to my life, the people I met through it.