Hope Stape is the daughter of John and Fiz Stape.
Born in December 2010 during the events of the tram crash, Hope was a miracle child due to the fact that she had been three months premature and her odds at surviving had been slim (this inspired her name). Around the time of her birth her father had become a serial killer; being involved in the accidental demises of Colin and Joy Fishwick, and having bludgeoning Charlotte Hoyle to death with a hammer. The first year of Hope's existence was severely affected by her father's misdeeds as, when his crimes began to unravel, John kidnapped her for a short while before faking his death - by plunging from the hospital roof. He later returned to clear Fiz's name, when she was accused of being involved in the killings and was remanded in prison alongside Hope, and he did so before passing away shortly after from injuries sustained in a car crash.
In late 2012, Fiz began a relationship with Tyrone Dobbs after discovering that he was being abused by his partner Kirsty Soames. Eventually, Fiz and Tyrone decided to flee alongside Hope and his daughter Ruby but Fiz later decided to turn herself in to the police and Tyrone was arrested. However, Kirsty eventually saw sense and confessed her crimes and Fiz and Tyrone reunited. Since then Hope and Ruby have been raised as sisters, and Tyrone has looked upon Hope as his own daughter - especially when she was diagnosed with cancer in August 2015, although she later recovered. In December 2017, Hope began to show signs of following her father's troubled roots when she began to seriously misbehave - when she was expelled from Bessie Street School Fiz took her to a specialist unit in Birmingham. Upon their return in August 2019, Fiz tried to home-school her - but later contacted her old teaching assistant Jade Rowan.
Biography[]
2010-2011: Premature birth and father's demise[]
Born on 6th December 2010 to John and Fiz Stape at Weatherfield General, Hope was placed in an incubator shortly following her birth due to being three months premature (which was caused when an explosion at The Joinery led to a tram derailing and crashing onto Coronation Street - knocking Fiz to the ground beside the destroyed Kabin and resulting in her early labour).
Fortunately, Fiz had been found by Maria and Carla Connor who were able to transport her to the Underworld factory. Despite both Maria and Carla worrying about their respective loved-ones, Peter Barlow and Chris Gray, they were able to put their feelings aside to find help from Matt Carter - who confirmed that Fiz's contractions had begun and she needed to be taken to the hospital. By this time John had also arrived and went with Fiz in the ambulance, although he was also worrying about the fact that he had left the dead body of Charlotte Hoyle at No.5 after he smashed her over the head with a hammer when she attempted to expose their affair to Fiz. In reality John had been using Charlotte in order to keep her quiet about Colin Fishwick's death (who had suffered from a heart attack during a confrontation with John after learning that he had stolen his identity).
December 2010: Fiz and John call their daughter Hope after she miraculously survives having been born prematurely.
At the hospital Fiz successfully gave birth to her baby girl, despite having known that her odds of survival would be slim, and she later chose the name of Hope to reflect her daughter's status as a miracle child. When Fiz's brother Chesney Brown and his girlfriend Katy Armstrong visited the hospital they were turned away, leaving John fearing that they would return to No.5 and find Charlotte's lifeless corpse. In order to clear his conscience, and focus on his wife and newborn daughter, John returned to the street and dragged Charlotte's body down the ginnel where he was discovered by a Police Woman - who assumed that he had rescued her from the wreckage. With the discovery of Charlotte's body the death count for the disaster rose to four with Ashley Peacock, Molly Dobbs and an unnamed Taxi Driver also perishing.
Over the next couple of months Hope's recovery was stunted by several problems; she was in need of a transfusion to help fight off an infection due to her weak immune system, then a hole was found in her heart. Many people from the street began to raise money to assist Hope - even the Websters, who had been rivals of the Stape family ever since John kidnapped their daughter Rosie in 2007, contributed. Although, throughout this time John was secretly fighting his own demons after accidentally causing the death of a third person - Joy Fishwick (who had come close to unravelling the truth about her son Colin's death).
Eventually, Hope was discharged in March 2011. John had a mental breakdown following his involvement in three people's deaths. In June 2011, when the truth about his crimes emerged, he took Hope from Fiz and Fiz was hit by a van trying to retrieve her.
When Fiz was in hospital, John asked her to run away with him, but when she pressed the panic button, he escaped onto the building's roof with Hope. He was persuaded to hand the baby back, but threw himself off the roof. He was presumed to have been killed in the fall, but he actually went on the run.
This led the police to believe that Fiz was responsible for the three deaths of Colin Fishwick, Charlotte Hoyle and Joy Fishwick.Fiz was remanded in custody and allowed to keep Hope with her in prison. When Fiz was put on trial, John returned but crashed his car after kidnapping Rosie.
With John on the verge of death, Fiz went to visit him in hospital with Hope. John confessed to his crimes and told police that Fiz was innocent. He died moments later.
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List of addresses[]
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Employment history[]
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