Debbie left devastated on Coronation Street after wrongly accusing a friend of being a pervert

Why won’t the writers of Coronation Street give poor Debbie Webster (Sue Devaney) a break?

First, her world was rocked by a heartbreaking dementia diagnosis last year.

Then her fairytale wedding to doting hubby Ronnie Bailey (Vinta Morgan) was ruined by the Corriedale crash. A crash by the way, caused by her drunk-driving lying snake of a son, Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard) – who was quite happy to slide his dear old mum into the driving seat and let her go to jail.

A spell at His Majesty’s Pleasure caused a rapid decline in Debbie’s condition. But even once she’d been released, Carl didn’t stop his manipulations and was determined to gaslight his mum into signing over her beloved Chariot Square Hotel just to line his own pockets.

Eventually, Carl proved to have a personality even a mother couldn’t love and Debbie decide to cut ties with the toe-rag once and for all.

Of course, she did a spectacular one eighty once Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) accidentally dropped a car on him.

But it seems that Carl has finally saw the light after a spot of dodgy dealing with the local gangster resulted in him getting his hands on a gun by mistake, resulting in a tense Mexican standoff in the garage between him, Ronnie, Tyrone and Kevin Webster’ (Michael Levell).

The only silver living to come from this amateur hours Lock Stock debacle was Carl and Kev finally yet tentatively burying the hatchet… and given that Carl destroyed Kev’s marriage by seducing his wife Abi (Sally Carman-Duttine), there was an awful lot to bury.

Debbie got her wish, and peace in the family was restored in Clan Webster, leaving her free to focus on good times with her Cobbles girl squad – Sally Metcalfe (Sally Dynevor), Glenda Shuttleworth (Jodie Prenger), Bernie Winter (Jane Hazlegrove) and Christina Boyd (Amy Robbins).

Unfortunately, Debbie’s condition is set to deteriorate even further.

The severity of her illness dawned on Debbie only last week, when she was haunted by a nightmare about that missing gun.It only got worse when Debbie temporarily forgot the word ‘gun’.

The dementia is affecting her job too. Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford) was unhappy when Debbie messed up her order of roses and sent lilies instead. Then she mistook the popping of a gender reveal party balloon for a firing gun, causing her to go into a full meltdown. This led Debbie to the heartbreaking conclusion that perhaps she shouldn’t do her job anymore.

Now her condition is about to affect her social life too, when she makes a horrific allegation against a beloved Coronation Street resident.

Sally suggests to Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine) that they throw a garden party. Having just returned from her holiday, Debbie tells them to count her in.

Bernie, Christina, Debbie, Fiz (Jennie McAlpine) and Mary Taylor (Patti Clare) gather in the back garden, where Sally unveils her new pizza oven and orders Tim to fire up the hot tub.

While the women tuck into pizza and cocktails, Tim approaches, but a confused Debbie fails to recognise him and accuses him of “perving” at them in their swimsuits.

This has got to sting Tim, especially given his own traumatic experience with sexual abuse. Mary gently explains who he is, leading a mortified Debbie to apologise and declare she is going teetotal.

It’s another sad sign of poor Debbie’s decline, and a grim reminder that the end is drawing ever closer.