| abstract
| - Colin Grimshaw was Eileen Grimshaw's father, and grandfather of Jason and Todd Grimshaw. He was briefly engaged to Rita Sullivan until it became known that he had had a fling with underage Paula Carp in 1976 and that Julie Carp was his daughter from that relationship. Colin was born on 27th April 1939. By 1961, he had married and his daughter Eileen was born on 7th October of that year. Although Colin did not spend much time parenting, preferring to drink and gamble, Eileen had many positive memories of him. In 1976, Colin caught the eye of Eileen's best friend, flirty 14-year-old Paula Carp. Paula seduced him and they slept together. When Colin's wife found out about it, she left him, although the couple did their best to protect Eileen, who did not learn the truth for many years and who thought Colin was the innocent party in the marriage break-up. Meanwhile, Paula moved away and Colin didn't find out that he and Paula had conceived a daughter, Julie, who was born the following year. When Eileen was an adult, Colin rarely visited his family in Weatherfield. Eileen was wary of his visits as she knew him more for his unreliability, his stubbornness and his ways with women. On one such visit in 2008, Colin took a fancy to a bemused Rita Sullivan, and avoided Eileen so he could spend time with Rita. When Eileen found out Colin was up to his usual tricks, she marched over to the Rovers and handed him his cold dinner. Rita was receptive to Colin, giving him a reason to visit Eileen more often, although he continued to give short shrift to his daughter, lying to her on Christmas Day so that he could spend the day with Rita. Rita and Colin's whirlwind romance continued until April 2009, when Colin celebrated his 70th birthday with a party in the Rovers. During the celebrations, Colin proposed to Rita and she gladly accepted. However, the party was interrupted by the arrival of Paula Carp, who had recently heard that her daughter Julie had slept with Jason. In an argument with Julie, Paula dropped the bombshell that Julie and Jason were related. Paula then told everyone that Colin was Julie's dad, exposing Colin as a child abuser. In the ensuing weeks, Colin was shut out by his family and, despite his best efforts, he failed to get Rita to take him back. His situation wasn't helped by his refusal to take the blame, with Colin continually pointing out that Paula seduced him, missing the point that as the adult it was his responsibility to put a stop to it. The stress caused Colin to suffer a stroke, but Eileen refused to go with him to Weatherfield General or visit him. On 11th May, Colin discharged himself from the hospital, with Jason and Julie, who had become obsessed with the dad she never had, looking after him at Eileen's house. Eileen had only let him stay there because she didn't want him to have to go to a nursing home. When Paula found out that Colin was staying at No.11, she mistakenly assumed that Eileen had forgiven him, and in her anger told the police about what Colin did to her. When the police arrived to question him over his child abuse, the thought of going to prison preoccupying him, Colin collapsed and died instantly from another stroke.
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