been having an affair with Dawn Cunningham (Lisa Williamson) and returns to America, taking Darren with her. Darren returns to live with his father two years later. Darren becomes friends with Luke Morgan (Gary Lucy); together they stand up to bully Mark Gibbs (Colin Parry). When Mark's bullying of Luke becomes more severe, Darren decides to befriend Mark in the hope he will go easy on Luke. His attempts do not succeed and Mark rapes Luke. After the attack, Luke's relationship with Mandy Richardson (Sarah Jayne Dunn) begins to fail, so Darren takes advantage of the situation and begins a relationship with Mandy. Darren suggests that Luke might be gay and that he was responsible for his own rape. Mandy breaks up with Darren. Darren trashes his sister Ruth's (Terri Dwyer) flat and is evicted; he leaves the village soon afterwards. 2003–present Shortly after Darren returns to Hollyoaks village from America three years later, Darren begins a skimming scam which is found out by his boss Scott Anderson (Daniel Hyde) who refuses to give him time off work. In retaliation he plants incriminating evidence on Scott's computer before calling the police. Scott sets fire to The Loft with Darren inside, but Scott becomes trapped and Darren leaves him for dead. Darren is told no trace of Scott has been found, but Scott is alive and sends threatening postcards to Darren. Scott attacks Darren, who pleads with Scott not to kill him, but the police arrive shortly after. Darren and Debbie Dean (Jodi Albert) have a brief relationship, but it ends when her boyfriend Dan Hunter (Andrew McNair) returns from prison. He later begins a relationship with Steph Dean (Carley Stenson), but ends it when she has an epileptic seizure, and he begins dating Zoe Carpenter (Zoë Lister). Darren begins gambling, and becomes addicted. The relationship ends when Darren has sex with Zoe's best friend, Jessica Harris (Jennifer Biddall) after he and Zoe fight over his gambling addiction. Darren steals Frankie Osborne's (Helen Pearson) jewellery to settle a debt with a loan shark, and blames Barry "Newt" Newton (Nico Mirallegro), who is sent back to care. Jack, unaware of Darren's addiction, gives him half The Dog in recognition of how much he has matured. Darren begins counselling for his gambling addiction, but later plays poker with Warren Fox (Jamie Lomas) and loses his half of The Dog to him. Jack and