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Jeff Horton was the father of the late Lisa Horton and father in-law to Terry Duckworth and maternal grandfather to Tommy Duckworth.

Jeff and his wife Doreen didn't approve of their daughter going out with Terry, especially when he was arrested for GBH and received a custodial sentence. He was also unimpressed with Terry's parents, Jack and Vera Duckworth, and made no effort to be friendly to them when he and Doreen came to Weatherfield to meet them for the first time. Despite his feelings, Jeff agreed to pay for Lisa and Terry's church wedding, with Terry being given a day release from jail to marry Lisa. They witnessed Terry running off when he was un-handcuffed by his prison officer, and returned home to Blackpool when Lisa decided to stay in Weatherfield in case Terry got in touch.

Lisa moved back to her parents house just before Christmas, by which time Tom had been born. Lisa had decided to leave Terry but she was persuaded to return to Weatherfield by Des Barnes, with whom she had become close while living there before. When Lisa was killed in a car accident in 1993, Jeff and Doreen wanted custody of Tom. At the time, Terry was still in prison and so Tom was looked after by Jack and Vera, who expected Terry to take him on when he was released at the end of the year, but Jeff and Doreen made a private deal with Terry to pay him £3,000 a year in exchange for custody of Tom. Terry agreed and took Tom off Jack and Vera on Christmas Eve to hand him over to the Hortons. Jeff and Doreen were annoyed to discover Terry hadn't told the Duckworths (he led them to believe he was taking Tommy for a day out) so Jeff went with him to tell them, fearing that Jack and Vera would otherwise think he'd been snatched. The incident destroyed the Duckworths' relationship with their son, but the Hortons saw no reason to cut them out of Tommy's life and they allowed Jack and Vera to have him on school holidays.

In 1996, Jeff couldn't come up with the full amount of money for Terry, so Terry took Tommy back to Coronation Street to his parents. Jeff however paid Terry £10,000 pounds, and got him to sign a custody agreement so they can look after Tommy until his eighteenth birthday. This was the last time Terry had anything to do with the Horton family and Jeff never told Tommy the truth about why he and Doreen were raising him. In 1997, Tricia Armstrong visited the Hortons and asked them to let Terry know she was looking for him, but they didn't know how to contact him and Jeff advised her to have nothing to do with him.

In 2000, Doreen left Jeff for Carl Mason. Jeff left Tommy with the Duckworths while he worked things out with Doreen. They quickly sorted out their differences. When Vera died in 2008, Jack and Vera's lodger and close friend Tyrone Dobbs tried to contact them but was unable to.

Tommy's relationship with Jeff was often fraught with arguments. In 2012, Jeff passed away from a heart attack, and the news was broken to Tommy by Tyrone. Tommy felt bad as his last conversation with Jeff had ended on a sour note, but he eventually came to terms with it.

List of appearances[]

1992[]

1993[]

1994[]

1996[]

1997[]

2000[]

External links[]

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