until April 2017 due to his education; Lachlan made a full-time return on 20 April 2017. Atkinson made his final appearance on 19 September 2018. Atkinson reprised the role of Lachlan for a guest stint in January 2019. Lachlan befriends Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper), but her strange behaviour causes others to think Lachlan has been harassing her. Lachlan photographs Belle and realises that something is wrong with her. He helps her realise that she needs help, as do her family. Lachlan also makes friends with Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant) and spends time with him at his house. Jacob's mother, Alicia (Natalie Anderson), takes an interest in him as she can see he is a bit different. Chrissie is grateful for this but it soon becomes clear that Lachlan's interest in Alicia is inappropriate as shown when Chrissie finds that Lachlan has a lot of photos of Alicia. He claims that this is because he is helping Jacob make a photo book, which is true, and Jacob gives it to his mother as a present. Lachlan later buys Alicia an expensive handbag as a Valentine's present, making her husband, David Metcalfe (Matthew Wolfenden), wonder where it came from until Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler) tells him that she saw Lachlan with it. David tells Alicia and she returns it, letting him down gently, but Lachlan ignores it and David's warning to keep his distance. Believing Alicia returns his feelings, he sexually assaults her but a distraught Alicia throws him out of the house and calls the police. He initially tells the police that their relationship was consensual, leading her to be questioned about this. Chrissie initially believes him but later finds evidence that he is lying and on hearing Alicia's version of events, calls the police herself. She tells him and her father that Lachlan must take responsibility for what he has done. After finishing his counselling, Lachlan begins suffering abuse from other students. He starts to blame Chrissie for ruining his reputation. Chrissie decides to get in contact with his father Donny Cairn (Alan Convy) in order to get through to him. Donny suggests to Lachlan that he lives with him in Scotland, to which Lachlan agrees. The next morning, Chrissie and her father Lawrence White (John Bowe) tell Lachlan that Donny had left to go abroad, when in fact he had been beaten up by loan sharks. After nearly being