David Platt’s male rape storyline is partially based on the experience of one man, Sam Thompson.
Thompson was 22-year-old when he was attacked and raped by two men after leaving a club in Manchester.
A year later and he is advising Coronation Street producers and writers on the show’s storyline in order to make the trauma of David’s assault appear as real as possible.
Thompson told BBC’s Newsbeat that he wanted to get involved with the soap to remind male survivors of rape that “… it’s OK, it’s not our fault and we aren’t alone.”
The now 23-year-old said he got chatting to two men after getting split up from his friends and his girlfriend late into the night.
He ended up back at their hotel where he remembers that everything went “hazy.”
The two men then “took it in turns to rape me.”
Thompson recalled how he felt in the immediate aftermath of his attack.
He said:
“I remember how I felt in those first few months after being raped. Secluded, ashamed, frustrated and anxious.
“It shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be like that but sometimes, as men, we need reminding. That’s what Corrie has done.”
Thompson also said that seeing as elements of his own story have been used in the Corrie script, it has been “a difficult watch” for him – and for other survivors too.
However, he disagrees with those who believe that the trauma of the rape shouldn’t be played out on screen.
“So many people aren’t aware that men can even become victims of such crimes – and the general acceptance that a man is only a man if he fights his way through life is just ridiculous.
“We all have our own ideas of what masculinity actually is but for most, their belief is nothing more than an outdated idealistic view.”
Thompson said that he believes the storyline has had a “life-changing” impact for the many men who have come forward since the soap’s storyline first aired.
Corrie‘s latest episodes have seen David struggle to assert his masculinity in the aftermath of his attack.
He is still yet to tell anybody about the assault.
