Jim Latimer was a Beckindale resident, born to Hilda Latimer and her husband. He began to take an unhealthy obsession with Sharon Crossthwaite. Jim eventually raped and murdered Sharon and was sentenced to life imprisonment. When he is released from prison in 1991 he begins stalking Jack Sugden who was a prosecution witness at his trial in 1973, and Jack's girlfriend Sarah Connolly. One day Sarah catches him in the house and he kidnaps her. Sarah manages to talk Jim round and he is about to let her go when the police arrive and arrest him.