WPC Burns attended several incidents involving Coronation Street residents.
In December 2003, Sarah Platt had trusted Brenda Fearns to take her daughter Bethany to stay with her overnight. Brenda was the paternal grandmother of the child and was suffering after the death of the teenage father and her son Neil three months before. Brenda failed to return Bethany at the appointed time and Sarah and boyfriend Todd Grimshaw started to grow frantic with worry.
They called at Brenda's house where they saw Bethany's favourite doll through the window but no sign of anyone in. They called the police and WPC Burns told them that a check had been made on the hospitals and again on Brenda's place but there was little they could officially do until the child had been missing twenty-four hours. After several more hours, Brenda turned up with Bethany and the excuse that they'd been queuing for a long time in the shops to see Father Christmas. A relieved but furious Sarah and Todd threw Brenda out of their flat.
In June 2005, Burns spoke with Bev Unwin and Deirdre Barlow when they called at Weatherfield Police Station to report that Charlie Stubbs had beaten up Bev's daughter Shelley Unwin. In reality, Shelley had, for once, really been the victim of a doorframe in the eye and this, coupled with her agoraphobia, meant that she didn't want to leave her bedroom, a state of affairs that the bullying, controlling Charlie was happy to acquiesce with. Burns told Bev and Deirdre that unless Shelley herself was willing to make a complaint, there was very little that she could do.
In the following February, Burns was present when Kelly Crabtree and partner Lloyd Mullaney went to the police station to collect Kelly's belongings which had been taken during a mugging which occurred in December. After a delighted Kelly signed to release a valuable watch and mobile phone that had been recovered, the officer advised that the person caught and charged for the offence was also admitting to several other offences of the same nature and it would be unlikely that the case would be heard in court.
Within twenty-four hours, Burns was in attendance at 10a Coronation Street after Rita Sullivan arrived back from Manchester with a vulnerable Stacy Hilton to find her flat had been burgled. The officer offered Rita a hand to tidy up and then moved onto taking a statement. Although it was thought that Stuart, a man who badly beat Stacy up over twelve months previously may have been responsible, Rita lead the officer to believe that she had no idea who would have a grudge against her.
She and a colleague attended another break-in during August that year - this time at 19a Victoria Street, home to Maria Sutherland. In reality, landlord Charlie Stubbs broke the front door and staged the robbery after Maria called time on their affair. Although she confirmed that her grandmother's ring and a total of £50 appeared to have been taken, Burns stated that although she would send someone round to check for fingerprints, she didn't hold out much hope of catching the thief or retrieving the missing items.She advised Maria to change the lock on her front door and cancel her bank cards.
The officer next called to Coronation Street following a phone call from the ever-vigilant Norris Cole in April 2007, reporting that a "valuable possession" which had been left outside on the footpath by neighbour Jerry Morton had been stolen by thieves in a van. Norris believed it to be an expensive brand-new washing machine still in it's original box, but when Burns knocked at No.6 to speak with Jerry, he confirmed that it was an old freezer he was intending to take to the tip. Having placed it into the box to stop the door from flying open, he was pleased that someone had decided to take it off his hands and apologised to the officer for wasting police time.
In April 2008, she and a colleague turned up at 14a Victoria Street to question Leanne Battersby after her restaurant, Valandro's, was burnt to the ground in an insurance scam perpetrated by her and Paul Clayton.
Finally in December, she arrested Maria Connor for criminal damage after she had daubed the word 'murderer' on the wall of Underworld - in reference to Tony Gordon. Upon arriving on the scene, Burns was quick to think that Becky Granger was the culprit due to her chequered history and was seen walking away from Underworld (although she had used the paint to correct Maria's spelling mistake). Maria was subsequently released when Tony was unwilling to press charges against her.
- The character was billed as "WPC Burns" on her first appearance, "PC Burns" on her second and unnamed in all other subsequent appearances.
List of appearances[]
2003
2005
2006
2007
2008