Craig Reed was an old friend of Lydia Dingle (then known as Jenny Finn) from her time spent in a children's home as well as the father of Lydia's stillborn son, Toby Finn.
Craig Reed lived at a children's home when he was young. He was placed next to Jenny Finn in his maths lessons, who he also lived with at the children's home. She soon fell pregnant by him and in November 1990, Jenny went missing. She had given birth to a boy in the top-floor bathroom of the children's home, although he was stillborn, wrapped him in her jumper and buried him in some woodland which would later be the site of Hotten Academy.
In August 2023, Craig reconnected with Lydia for the first time in 33 years after spotting her at a jobs fair at the Hide. After the fair, Craig and Lydia went to the café for a coffee where Lydia broke the news to Craig about their son. Lydia eventually started working for Craig and he helped her stepson Samson Dingle by giving him work experience. Craig starts to obsessively fall in love with Lydia despite him being friends with her husband Sam Dingle. In early September 2023 Lydia decided she wanted to resign from her job. She meets him in his office to give him her resignation letter. The conversation gets awkward as he question her why she is leaving. She makes an excuse saying she has to leave but Craig decides to question her even more about this saying if Sam is treating her right. She wants to leave but Craig continues to talk about how she is the one and pins her down on the couch. He begins to force himself on him despite her pleas. He then tries to get close to her even after the attack but she begs him to take her home and he obeys. Lydia is clearly shocked but continues to work for him afterwards and Samson continues his work experience.
Two days after attack, he sees her looking at his office where he raped her. During this encounter Lydia tries to tell him that he raped her, but he denies this however, saying that it is okay to feel guilty to sleep with your husband’s friend. He constantly terrifies and torments Lydia, including showing up at Home Farm unexpectedly and having a good friendship with Samson. She eventually reports to the police that she has been raped but doesn’t mention Craig. Despite this, Craig also starts problems between Sam and Lydia. He feels like Lydia is ignoring him for no reason as she is not showing him any sort of attention since the attack but he didn’t think of it as rape at the time. When Lydia is in Craig’s office again and Craig offers her a drink and tries to play it cool. Suddenly, Craig and Lydia argue about her and Sam. She yells at him saying that it is nothing wrong with her and Sam and tries to leave but Craig grabs her and she gets scared and begs him to let her go. Craig is perplexed and asks her what’s wrong and she replies by saying he raped her which Craig denies.
In October 2023 she told her family about her being raped which took a toll on the family and Sam. Lydia later then told Samson who was in disbelief but went on to confront Craig about it, though Craig played it off as Lydia being a liar. Sam is horrified by the discovery of Lydia getting raped, so he and his half brother Cain Dingle plot revenge against him. A few days later on 26th October, Lydia’s sister-in-law, Belle Dingle exposes Craig at a business presentation by telling everyone that he is a rapist. This angers Craig as he and the Dingles clash, leading to him going to The Woolpack and threatening the family with legal action. On 27th October 2023, Craig was found dead in a field and the Dingles were all suspects. Cain and Sam, Charity Dingle and Chas Dingle, Aaron and Vinny, Caleb Miligan and his nephew Nate Robinson, Mandy Dingle and Marlon Dingle all reveal their alibi’s and prove their innocence.
However, after all of this Sam says it was him despite Cain warning him not to. During a flashback Cain, Sam and Craig are in the road as they let him go but Craig begins taunting Sam about what he did to Lydia. Sam loses it and attacks Craig as he tries to talk his way out of it, but he gets kneed in the stomach twice and brutally beat up by Sam as Cain watched. Sam then left Craig bruised and bloodied as he limped away into a field. Then he comes across Kim Tate riding her horse and he tries to plead with her to help him but she rebuffs him. He then asks how could she be so careless and as Kim tries to move away from him, Craig refuses to move. He grabs the reins, causing the horse’s legs rise kicking Craig in his head killing him instantly. Despite being dead he continues causing problems. Sam was arrested for the suspicion of his murder and Lydia breaks up with Sam for beating him up.