Pat Phelan

"I won't cause you any trouble if you don't cause me any trouble!!"

- Pat Phelan threatening his would-be archenemy Anna Windass.

Patrick James "Pat" Phelan is a fictional character and recurring antagonist of the British soap opera Coronation Street.

He first appeared as a key character of 2013 and went on to serve as the secondary antagonist in the first half of 2014, an unseen character in 2015, and the primary antagonist from 2016-2017 up towards the first quarter of 2018.

He is portrayed by Connor McIntyre.

2013-2014
Pat started out as a client of Owen Armstrong but turned out to be a bankrupt who refused to pay Owen for some building work. In revenge Owen stole Pat's motorbike, forcing him to pay up the money owed. A couple of months later a seemingly forgiving Pat turned up at Owen's household and proposed a job for construction work on new flats. Pat wanted Owen to run the project as Pat was a bankrupt. After discussing it with his family, Owen agreed and the deal was done.

However, Pat began to secretly creep out Owen's girlfriend Anna, and on multiple occasions made her feel uneasy and even touched her. Anna called Pat round to the house to put him straight, but seemingly believing she was trying to flirt with him made a pass at her. He eventually left the house, but Anna remained scared of Pat.

When Anna's son Gary found out, he confronted Pat at the building site when all of the other workers had gone. Pat taunted Gary, calling Anna a "tart". In a rage, Gary punched Phelan - sparking a fight between them that culminated with Gary knocking him unconscious with a plank of wood. Believing to have killed Pat, a panicked Gary phoned Owen for help - only for the duo to find that Pat has disappeared from the scene of the crime. A few days later, Pat reappeared and revealed the whole incident was caught on tape, and said as long as they did as he said he wouldn't turn it over to the police. Although Gary was willing to give himself up, Owen was firm and didn't want Gary to be imprisoned as he had a son to think of.

Pat proceeded to taunt and overwork Owen and Gary over the course of a few weeks. Anna was unable to watch the stress they were under so asked Pat she would do anything he wanted. Anna agreed to sleep with Pat, and in the progress he gave Owen and Gary the tape and let them go from the contract (but took all of the money Owen invested, leaving them bankrupt).

2015
A few months later, Pat sent the Armstrong and Windass family a postcard from Dubai - thus rubbing in this glory further. It was at this point that Anna confessed sleeping with Phelan to Owen, which effectively drove the couple apart as Owen would leave Weatherfield due to the crisis. It was around this time, however, that Valrie discovered the truth about Phelan as well - which consequently led to the pair's divorce and Valrie claiming all the assets, thereby leaving Phelan with nothing.

2016-2018
Pat returned in January 2016, in which he gets a job working for Kevin Webster - who is coincidentally Anna's new boyfriend. It soon turns out that Pat is working with Jason Grimshaw and he later forms a relationship with his mother Eileen.

During their relationship, Pat secretly gained enemies following his attempts to sabotage Jason's business; He repeatedly clashed with Michael that led to his initial departure, while Jason's brother Todd is the only member in the family who is completely aware of Pat's true nature. Kevin soon discovered the truth about this upon catching Pat assaulting Anna in her café, and on some occasions exchanged antagonistic and hostile threats against him. Pat also ended up in a confrontation with Johnny Connor after a confrontation between Jason and the latter's son Aidan following the death of Jason's father Tony. After punching Pat in the Rovers and unsuccessfully attempting to apologize afterwards, Johnny promised to settle their interactive feud next time.

Phelan became close friends with Vinny Ashford. Phelan and Vinny built a scam together, and then began a relationship with Eileen Grimshaw. After Eileen's son Todd discovered the deception, he also went along with the scam. Eileen's ex, Michael Rodwell, attempted to bring him down permanently. Michael broke into Phelan's office and discovered fake passports, but when Phelan noticed he was there, Michael threw a chair at him and ran out of the office. Outside, as Michael collapsed with a sudden heart attack, Phelan watched on as Michael died instead of calling for an ambulance and then walked away. Todd found Michael dead the following morning and Vinny did a runner with the money.

In December 2016, Michael's surrogate son Andy Carver grew suspicious about Phelan and was later convinced of his role in Michael's death upon hearing rumors of Kevin confronting Phelan over it. Later on that night, Andy vengefully hit Phelan on the head with a brick and knocked him unconscious. However, Phelan survived and made it clear to Andy that he knew of his role behind the attack. He subsequently blackmailed Andy into committing petty crimes and sabotaging Kevin's business under the threat of reporting him to the police and getting him sent down for attempted murder.

When Anna had fallen downstairs on New Years' Eve. Kevin's 6-year-old son, Jack, ran off to get help and Phelan offered to help. He had to kick the door in to rescue Anna. After fixing the door, Phelan stole the receipt for Kevin's new pick-up truck. A few days later, Phelan called the retailer and changed the delivery address for the new truck. Andy was ordered to sell it. Andy and his girlfriend, Steph Britton, had planned to move to Portugal. A couple of days before they left, Phelan noticed that Kevin had CCTV in his garage and had unknowingly caught him admitting to his involvement in the scam during another confrontation with Todd; this was on the day Phelan took Eileen out to dinner in which Todd confronted him about his attempts to let go on the scam development, which Phelan promptly responded to disregarding the issue upon telling Todd how he would've ripped off the Weatherfield residents had Vinny never ditched nor betrayed him in the first place. When discovering this, Phelan summoned Andy and coerced him into setting fire to the garage. Andy agreed. That night, Phelan poured vodka into Kevin's drink. Kevin went to sleep in a car at the garage. After Luke Britton and Tracy Barlow had intercourse the previous night, they also wanted CCTV footage deleted cause it was filming during the night. Afterwards, Andy poured petrol on the floor, set fire to a bag and threw it on the floor. Andy made off with Kevin's laptop containing the CCTV footage. On Phelan's wedding day, Phelan noticed Andy with the laptop with the footage playing. Phelan's last demand was to break the laptop. Andy hit him with it and Phelan pretended to be unconscious. Phelan caught Andy off guard, and the two fought with the former taking the upper hand. Taking Kevin's laptop and ranting about how "the bad guy always gets his comeuppance", Phelan declares this a new ending on high alert before striking the laptop onto Andy, seemingly killing him. Phelan texted Steph with Andy's phone, leading her to believe that Andy had broken off with her and left for Bristol. Phelan then rushed to his wedding, where he married Eileen. Phelan later returned to Andy's flat and attempted to clean the victim's blood stains from the carpet with a wide assortment of cleaning products. With no progress being made, Phelan flooded the flat by breaking open the radiator, he then, rolled up the carpet and stored it in his van, later disposing of it.

Eight months later, it is slowly revealed that Phelan had kept Andy alive and was concurrently keeping him, hostage, ever since he struck him with a laptop. Additionally, Phelan's long-lost daughter Nicola Rothstein turned up and the duo steadily reconcile in the midst of Nicola's apprenticeship with Seb Franklin, whom Phelan had recently taken in as his assistant. During this time, Phelan extracted information on Vinny's whereabouts and blackmailed him into returning under the threat of harming his mother, Flora. This plan was successful and Phelan then took Vinny hostage, replacing Andy as had been agreed. On the following day, Phelan manipulated Andy into killing Vinny under the belief that he (not Phelan) caused Michael's death before executing him as well. Shortly after burying the bodies of Andy and Vinny in a nearby lake, Phelan proceeded to put Anna in the frame for committing GBH on his apprentice Seb Franklin upon learning that Anna told Nicola the truth about him. However, it was also revealed that Phelan had previously raped Nicola's mother Annabel when she used Anna's confession to seek answers from Annabel's neighbor Lydia Hartman - who also told her the truth about Phelan. Upon manipulating Seb into believing that Anna pushed him off the ladder, Phelan's plan went on successfully when Anna was arrested and remanded in custody after being charged with GBH.

At somepoint, Anna escaped prison when she got sent to hospital upon not feeling well, and Phelan's delight in hearing the news caused both Seb and Anna's daughter Faye - both of whom are currently in a relationship together - to discover Phelan's true colours; Faye had been recently told by Gary about what Phelan did to their mother. After catching out Anna when she unintentionally hit Eileen with a wrench, Phelan called the police on her and Anna was re-arrested. Phelan later visited her under the promise of further revenge for attacking Eileen, which Anna claimed that she was sorry about. However, when Phelan is about to leave after taunting Anna once more, she slapped him on the face and he spitefully had her charged with assault. On the day of Anna's trial, Phelan testified against her whilst both Faye's father Tim Metcalfe and Anna's longtime friend Roy Cropper made a statement on her behalf. When Seb was placed on the stand, he surprisingly defended Anna by exposing Phelan as the perpetuator behind the crime. Seb's testimony appeared to convince Eileen of Phelan's guilt, but this soon changes when she catches Gary and Tim dragging Seb into the latter's taxi on CCTV camera- which led her to believe that the duo were coercing Seb into testifying against Phelan. This revelation is court was enough to destroy Seb's testimony, and Anna was later found guilty of the crime which she didn't commit. As Anna gets taken to prison, she hysterically brands Phelan "pure evil" after describing him as a monster whilst crying out his crimes against Owen and Michael - all the while Phelan taunts her in front of everyone excluding Eileen, who had earlier left the courtroom by the time the verdict was announced.

Earlier on, Phelan found himself under pressure from Andy's friend Luke Britton when he began investigating the true circumstances of Andy's "disappearance"; Phelan had already manipulated Luke into believing this, though Luke soon learns otherwise upon being told by Andy's roommate Matt Luscombe that he never made it to Bristol with him, nor did he went to Portugal with his girlfriend Steph. It was soon revealed that Phelan was bribing Matt to cover up the truth behind Andy's disappearance. However, Luke soon found out and later confronted Phelan just as the villain was attempting to dispose of the gun he used to kill Andy. Tensions quickly rise between then when Phelan's attempts to assure Luke's suspicions further convinced the latter of the villain's guilt. Luke then claimed that he would report Andy's disappearance to the police in order to uncover the truth behind the circumstances. However, as Luke was on the verge of leaving, Phelan grabbed a nearby rock and struck Luke on the head with it. He then tried to attack Luke, but was overpowered and beaten to the ground. As Luke fled from the scene, Phelan regained consciousness and perused Luke in his van - leading to the pair engaging in a high-speed car chase that culminated with Phelan ramming Luke's car into a war, totaling it and injuring Luke. As Luke tried to desperately escape, Phelan took out his gun and shot Luke before confessing to Andy's murder. He then told Luke to "say hello" to Andy from him before shooting the fuel-tank of his car, destroying it and killing Luke in the resulting explosion. By the time his murder was discovered, Phelan silently covered his tracks when he used Luke's earlier feud with the racist Parker brothers - both of whom had been targeting Luke and his girlfriend Alya Nazir - to implicate them for the murder. By the time Seb learned of the truth, he told Gary and the pair seek out Nicola in helping them bring Phelan down. Nicola, who had recently learned of Phelan's role in framing Anna and using this evidence to realize that he did killed Luke as Seb claims, falsely called a truce with Phelan and requested that he give Gary a job at his new site mill job in order for him to raise money for Nicola's impending baby; Gary is the father of her child as the pair previously had a one-night stand together.

A month later, however, Phelan learned of his daughter's betrayal when he found Seb taking refugee in her flat and realized that she has been safeguarding him ever since Anna was found guilty. On the day Nicola is rushed to hospital upon collapsing from her baby's kicking, Phelan confronted her shortly after firing Gary from the mill site job and disowned her. With Eileen taking his side once again, Phelan appears to have cemented his wife's eternal trust over him as she continues to believe him over everyone else which includes Eileen disbelieving her best friend Liz McDonald when she lashes out at Phelan for rejecting her proposal to take Eileen for a holiday, partly due to Todd's adopted daughter Summer Spellman being traumatized from the wedge-issue between Todd's boyfriend Billy Mayhew and her grandmother Geraldine over her custody. However, when Eileen organizes a party for Phelan and invites everyone over, she becomes concerned when Phelan doesn't show out. As it turns out, Phelan had recently learned from his boss Mona that his fellow workman will be draining the lake where Andy and Vinny's bodies were buried. He desperately attempts to relocate them to someplace else, but for the first time he fails when his phone gets dropped into the cement and, trying to retrieve it, Phelan falls and is knocked unconscious. With Tim's reluctant help, Eileen finds her husband and phones an ambulance to rescue him. On the day after, Phelan attempts to thank Tim for aiding Eileen in rescuing him. Tim, who is already aware of Phelan's true colours, instead rejects his thanks and begins questioning him over his role in the deaths of Michael and Luke both of which Phelan denies answering, also claiming that the incident regarding Anna's GBH situation was brought all on herself. However, when Tim brings up the subject on Calcutta Street, Phelan gleefully admits to his role in the scam development before leaving Tim in his taxi unaware that Tim had actually been recording his confession, which he later delivers to Eileen who later confronts her husband upon realizing that Michael and Anna had been right all along about Phelan's role in Calcutta Street, even going as far as to disregard his claims about Vinny. On the verge of reporting him to the police, however, Eileen regains her trust in Phelan when he once again wins her over by helping her in the situation with Billy and Summer; at one point, however, Phelan had attacked Billy into going to rehab without Summer and Eileen's knowledge.

Murders Committed

 * Michael Rodwell - voluntary manslaughter; succumbed to a heart attack as he watched on.
 * Vinny Ashford - by proxy; shot by Andy Carver under his influence.
 * Andy Carver - shot.
 * Luke Britton - shot and killed in a resulting explosion.

Trivia

 * Pat Phelan's reign of criminality saga is similar to Richard Hillman's killer storyline.
 * Pat and Richard were both businessmen and con artists.
 * Pat and Richard's first "murder" victim was by accident and somebody they left to die; with Richard indirectly causing the death of fellow associate Duggie Ferguson, whereas Phelan had deliberately provoked his arch-rival Michael Rodwell into dying of a heart attack just moments before staging the lethal execution of former cohort Vinny Ashford.
 * Their second and third murder victims were committed by their own hands; with Richard killing his ex-wife Patricia and later local neighbour Maxine Peacock, whereas Pat killed his personal hostage Andy Carver and later the latter's best friend Luke Britton.
 * Shortly after their second murder they got married to the person they loved, with Richard marrying Gail and with Pat marrying Eileen.
 * The pair of them tried to move on from their crime and build a happy family life, with Richard creating a ready made family with Gail's and with Pat attempting to bond with his long-lost daughter.
 * The kidnapping storyline which ended on 27 October 2017, with Phelan shooting Andy after having Vinny executed; resulted in Ofcom receiving 390 complaints. Ofcom claims that these complaints were about the violence, but most of these complaints were about the lack of quality in the writing. Critics cite this as a prime example of ITV's supposedly thin skin.