Richard Hillman
Richard Hillman
Children:
Played by: Brian
Capron
First appeared: 20 June 2001
Alma Halliwell's cousin. Although they were close as children, Richard and Alma had lost contact as adults. However, Richard found out about Alma's death and turned up to her funeral. This fact is somewhat dubious though, as Alma had never mentioned Richard before.
Richard is a financial advisor who lives in Manchester but works all over the country. Alma left Audrey a sum of money and he offered to invest it for her. Audrey thought he fancied her but in fact, he was attracted to Gail. Richard and Gail Platt began dating but it wasn't too long before Gail moved Richard in to her house and bed. Sarah and David were somewhat suspicious but Richard won them over with expensive gifts and holidays and to be fair, did treat them like his own children.
Richard was a widower and then divorced from Patricia with whom he had started his business, Kellett Holdings. His mother died from Alzheimer's Disease, his father left when he was young. Family was very important to Richard but he could not father his own children. Gail and Richard married in an elaborate ceremony in July 2002.
Richard's business dealings often seemed to be in the gray area of legality. He went into business with Duggie Ferguson, refurbishing an old house that his business owned after it's owner died. These were to be luxury flats but from the beginning, there were problems. Duggie endeavored to use substandard materials and the conversion seemed to be a money pit. Late one night, Duggie and Richard had a confrontation and Duggie fell through a stair railing. Richard did not call for help straight away but left him there, hurried to Duggie's flat and stole a large wad of money from the safe. Duggie was dead when Richard returned to the house.
Norris Cole was always suspicious of Richard, especially after Richard involved Emily in a mortgage buy back scheme, the sort that his business was built on. It was all above board but Norris picked and nagged until Richard took him to the house alone and scared Norris into silence.
Another blow to the nearly finished flat conversion, now being finished by Steve McDonald, was the council's proposal to build a bail hostel next door. The luxury flats would not sell and the bills mounted up. Then Patricia, Richard's ex wife decided she wanted to be bought out of her share of Kellett and pushed Richard for money that he didn't have. Even after Gail remortgaged her house to help out, Things were very bad financially and Patricia's demands were overwhelming. Richard and Patricia argued about the money at the building site and Richard whacked her over the head with a shovel and killed her. He buried her under the building site where a foundation was to be poured the next day. He gave Gail Patricia's bracelet which Steve had found, saying to Steve it was a client's and telling Gail it was his mother's.
He's killed once. But the money problems aren't over yet. An elaborate wedding mounted even more bills. Richard became desparate. He took the Duckworth's money and instead of legally investing it for them, put it against his own bills and into his own company. Their investment was worthless and they've lost all their nest egg. He then realized that Audrey was worth a quarter of a million and decided to gain control of her assets by attempting to first make Audrey think she was losing her mind and when that didn't work, Tried to kill Audrey by setting her house on fire and making it look like she forgot to turn off the stove.
Audrey survived and accused Richard of trying to kill her. Gail of course sided with Richard and there was a huge row. Richard was getting desparate with the bank threatening bankruptcy. He decied that, since Emily's house was owned by his company and he would get the house and subsequently the money from it's sale at her death, he would just bring along that death a little early. Emily babysat for Joshua Peacock one night that a party was going on in the pub. Richard drugged troubled teen Aidan Critchley and donned his clothes. He broke into the house and whacked Emily on the head with a crowbar. Maxine Peacock came home unexpectedly and caught him and so he killed Maxine too!
Having to do this affected Richard greatly. Emily survived but the mother of a small child (remember, Richard does value family) died. Very soon after this, another of Richard's clients died and he would have received the money from the sale of another house. On top of that, the bail hostel was cancelled and the luxury flats began to sell. Richard had killed for nothing! Gail became suspicious and confronted Richard who admitted everything. He fled the house and didn't return for a couple of weeks. When he did, he tied up his family in the van in the garage and attempted to gas them all, including himself, with the engine running. That didn't work so he sped off with the terrified Gail and children and drove into the canal. Gail and the kids were rescued but Richard drowned, leaving Gail with a mountain of debts and a lifetime of horrible memories.
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