Wayne was one of three boys (together with Kevin and Andrew) who "befriended" Peter Barlow when he came to stay with father Ken for a couple of weeks in April 1975. The boys annoyed Peter by calling him "Scotty" and he had little in common with them, nevertheless he had no one else of his own age to play with. The eldest and tallest of the three lads fancied himself as the leader of the "gang", smoking by the Community Centre wall and making feeble attempts to chat up Gail Potter and Tricia Hopkins as his two acolytes looked on.