Karl Munro

Karl Munro is a character in the British Soap Opera Coronation Street, who was originally a central character in 2011 and 2012, but then one of the main antagonists in 2013 after he murdered lover Sunita Alahan. He is played by John Michie.

History
Karl Munro arrived in Coronation Street along with girlfriend Stella Price when she became landlady at the Rovers Return Inn in June 2011. The pair had met years before when Karl offered Stella a free ride in his taxi when she was stuck out in the rain, and despite cheating on her a few times, she still loved him and he loved her also.

In 2012 Karl began an affair with barmaid Sunita Alahan. When it was exposed, he was chucked out of the Rovers and moved in with her (much to the dismay of her now-former partner Dev Alahan). But overtime Karl got increasingly bored with family life as Sunita was concentrating more on her two children and kept nagging him for lack of having a job. Karl also began to get jealous when Stella began a relationship with a much younger man - Jason Grimshaw.

When Karl was kicked out of Sunita's, his path of darkness began. After acquiring his taxi job back at Street Cars, he kidnapped Stella and begged her to take him back, but she refused. She did take pity on him, and advised Karl that he should move on.

But this wasn't enough for Karl, so he began a secret campaign of hate against Jason. When Jason was at a meeting at a council meeting, Karl stole his van and torched it somewhere. Although Jason suspected Karl was behind it, there was no evidence. But Karl was annoyed when Stella offered Jason the role of landlord at the pub, and realising he wasn't going anywhere soon, planned to take drastic action.

When the fuse in the Rovers began playing up, Karl got wind that Jason was working on fixing it. One night when Karl was taking part in a charity auction down the road to raise money, he managed to sneak out when no one was noticing. Thinking the Rovers was empty, he broke in, and began to sabotage the fuse box and set fire to the cellar in hoping of making it look like Jason caused it back carelessness. He was spotted by Sunita who followed him in. In a struggle, she fell down the stairs and into the burning cellar. In panic, Karl fled.

Later on when the fire spread, the frantic residents gathered at the site of the burning Rovers. Karl was shocked when he realised Stella was inside and rushed in to save her, and during the rescue attempt collapsed due to smoke inhalation. They were saved with the efforts of firefighters Paul and Toni, although the latter perished. Sunita was also discovered and put on life support in hospital. Karl feared she would awaken and reveal his involvement, so snuck in when she was alone and pulled out her breathing tubes, causing her to go into arrest and die. Karl was not suspected, and it was believed Sunita pulled out the tubes herself. Worst of all, Sunita was the suspect for causing the fire.

Karl and Stella reunited when she was grateful for him saving her life. Jason was devastated, and began suspecting Karl was behind it, but had no proof.

Karl discovered a young boy named Craig Tinker spotted him hanging around the night of the fire. But Craig thought he himself started the fire, as he smoked a cigarette and quickly threw it away when seeing Karl. But Karl tried to convince him not to tell anyone as it wasn't his thought, but the guilt ate away at Craig who began acting suspiciously and ran away. Karl brought him home and he was seen as a good support to Craig, despite the fact he wanted the lad to keep quiet.

On the day of Karl and Stella's wedding, Jason and Dev managed to get Craig to reveal he saw Karl acting suspicious and hanging around the Rovers on the night of the fire and he went to the police to get a statement. Karl and Stella were just married, but when he realised the police wanted to arrest him he held her and Dev hostage in the Rovers and broke down. Karl eventually gave himself up to police and was taken into custody. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.