Lynn Johnson was a young, attractive and well-spoken woman who, terrified of her older husband, builder Roy, turned to Len Fairclough in his capacity of local councillor for help after several years of abuse. Scared of her husband knowing that she was seeking help, she first rang Len at the Builder's Yard but insisted they meet in private and only during the day. She turned up at No. 9 at dinnertime, wearing large dark glasses which she took off to show a horrified Len her bruises.
She told him that he’d been recommended to her by a friend called Mrs McNamara whom Len had helped with a housing problem. Len gave her the address of women’s refuge but Lynn refused that idea. His only other suggestion was that she go to the police but such was Lynn’s level of fear that she refused to countenance this idea either. She visited Len several times, once in the Rovers, but his patience wore thin as she continued to reject his advice. Finally she was unable to stand the treatment that her husband meted out to her and she fled to No. 9. Although sympathetic with her situation, Len lost his temper with her at her refusal to take a stand and his shouts carried through to No. 11 where Ken and Janet Barlow heard the argument. Lynn finally agreed to go to the police but only if Len would go with her. He agreed, once he had delivered a tender to the yard for secretary Deirdre Hunt to type. Whilst he was gone, someone entered the house and Lynn was brutally battered to death. The police were called and Len became chief suspect with no one in the Street unable to substantiate his alibi and the evidence of the Barlows against him. Det. Chief Insp. Patterson though suspected the husband once older bruises were discovered on Lynn’s body that pre-dated her known association with Len and, by patient questioning, managed to wear down the Johnsons' tenant, Clifford Fenton, who provided the alibi for Roy. Len was subsequently set free.