CORONATION Street star James Craven has quit the soap after a year.
The actor – who played rapist Aaron Sandford in the ITV soap – has already filmed his final scenes.
Aaron raped Amy in a hard-hitting consent storyline
Viewers watched in horror as Aaron raped Amy Barlow after she fell asleep with earlier this year.
After the police failed to act, Amy exposed Aaron by writing about what he had done to her on social media.
In retaliation, Aaron and his dad launched an expensive legal fight against Amy and her family to force her to take it down and clear his name.
But with the Barlows facing financial ruin, Amy decided to take her post down – but it wasn’t enough for Aaron and his dad.
Instead they demanded a full retraction and now Amy and her family could lose everything.
Actor James’ final Coronation Street scenes will play out in the coming weeks.
A source revealed: “James has loved his time on the cobbles, who wouldn’t want to play a villain on Corrie?
“But when you play someone like Aaron there is always going to be a shelf-life and it’s time for him to go.
“James has made great friends but he’s focused on the future now.”
James recently opened up about how he struggled with the storyline.
“It was always clear to me that what he’s done is wrong,” he said.
“But I had to try and think about everything from his point of view, and he just doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong.
“The reason that he reacts and defends himself in the way that he does is because he truly believes he’s innocent.
“It’s quite a difficult thing when he’s outwardly defending himself and you know that he shouldn’t be defending himself.
“As an actor you have to try and find a way to rationalise why he does what he does because he’s not an evil character.”
