Summary[]
Richard is Catherine's ex husband. They divorced after the death of their daughter Becky, who committed suicide after being raped and impregnated by Tommy. Richard was traumatised after finding Becky dead after hanging herself. This pushed their marriage further apart; Catherine keeping custody of Ryan despite Richard demanding that he was put into care eventually led to their divorce.
Richard remarried to Ros Cawood prior to the series starting. He was also a journalist who faced redundancy after the newspaper moved online. In Series 3, Richard was offered to work on a story about the Knezevic gang in exchange for a high profile reputation. He had arranged to meet with Darius in a local pub but he cancelled as Richard arrived.
Series 1[]
In Series 1, Catherine and Richard slept together after bumping into each other in the street, where he revealed that Tommy Lee Royce had been released from prison. However, their one night stand did not lead to them rekindling their romance but it did repair their negative relationship and they grew closer as a family. When Ryan was present at Daniel and Lucy's pregnancy announcement dinner, Ryan saw the family together for the first time and realised that Richard was his grandfather so he requested to play football with him. Richard was reluctant at first but eventually he decided to form a relationship with his grandson after Catherine convinced him to give Ryan a chance.