Casualty star Milo Clarke has confirmed a devastating storyline

for his character Teddy Gowan, who will be sexually assaulted while at work.

The much-loved character arrived in 2021 and works as a

paramedic alongside his Auntie Jan (Di Botcher),

Iain (Mike Stevenson) and Jacob (Charles Venn).

In the three years we’ve known Teddy, he’s been established as a kind, caring young man who absolutely loves his job. He is great friends with Jacob and Iain and is also spending a lot of time with Jodie (Anna Chell), but Teddy’s relationships will be tested over the next few weeks, as he finds himself on a downward spiral after being attacked.

Discussing the start of this ordeal, actor Milo Clarke told Metro.co.uk: ‘Teddy and Iain go to a shout at a hen party. Hayley, who wants to be the ring leader…you get the impression that she would cause a bit of trouble if there was going to be any. It’s a shift where they deal with the group and then a little bit later on, Teddy and Iain see them again. Because Hayley is adamant there’s nothing wrong with her and that she’s just a bit drunk, there isn’t really anything Iain and Teddy can do at first.

‘At this point, Teddy’s going through a difficult time with Jodie and they’re not entirely sure if they’re an item. They then have a kiss which lifts Teddy’s mood and so he bounces into the next shout, he’s on top of the world! He’s very buoyant and then it all comes crashing down for Teddy when he goes to the pub, and he sees it’s the same hen party from before. Because Teddy is so full of energy at that point, Hayley picks up on that and she reads it as Teddy acting differently towards her.

‘It gets a bit misconstrued and then things take a darker turn when they have to take the bride back to the ambulance, and they all kind of pile in and Hayley, being the ring leader, encourages the group to do these “dares”.’

After Teddy is attacked, the ambulance doors open and he is forced to continue his job as normal.

‘There’s so much confusion’, Milo explained.

‘Having something like this happen is just awful in any circumstance but at work, having that element added to it, he’s struggling more because he doesn’t know who to turn to, Teddy doesn’t know what to do. The paramedics are a tight group and he even has his Auntie Jan within that group, but he doesn’t know the best course of action.’

Depictions of female on male assault have been covered in soap and continuing drama previously. In Emmerdale, we saw teacher Maya (Louisa Clein) groom and abuse student Jacob (Joe-Warren Plant) and between 2009-2010, Sally Spode (Sian Reeves) drugged Ashley Thomas (John Middleton) and then attacked him afterwards.

While female on male assault has been highlighted in the past, it certainly isn’t talked about as much as an attack where the female is the victim.

With this in mind, Milo felt a huge responsibility to tell Teddy’s story.

‘When I was approached about the storyline, I really wanted to do it and I think it’s something that really needs to be highlighted’, he said.

‘Even though sexual assault and these things happen the other way round, it does still happen and I think there’s just a very different reaction. We spoke a lot about how if this was a female paramedic, it’ll be seen as the worst thing in the world, it’s awful, but everyone is on your side. When I was researching things like this that happen to guys, there’s not loads of information out there because people don’t want to talk about it.

He added: ‘I was researching and I came across something called ‘Lucky Boy Syndrome’ which is the reaction of something along the lines of “wow a group of hens?!”. It’s that fear that Teddy realises and clocks very early on. He’s been with Paige in the past and he has a thing with Jodie now, people know he’s dating, so he doesn’t want people to have that reaction, that’ll be his worst fear because then, he has to keep up the male bravado and pretend it was great, when he knows it wasn’t.’

‘When he steps out of the ambulance afterwards, his life has changed. There’s been a lot that’s happened to Teddy recently, with Jan and Gethin, he’s trying to grow up and deal with these big life moments, but he also doesn’t know where to turn. He isn’t sure if he trusts Jan at the moment, everyone else seems to have their own things going on, him and Jodie aren’t quite a full on thing. I think a lot men struggle with that as well.’