The Following Profile was submitted by
Patricia Dempsey and is ©2004, 2007 to Patricia Dempsey & emmerdale.org
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Cute little Chesney appeared shortly after his
mother Cilla had taken up with Les Battersby in late 2003.
His sister Fiz always worried about him since, like her, he
had been in and out of care homes thanks to that selfish leech
that was their mother. He tried his best to fit in but was
considered a joke and loser by older boys. But in January 2004
he was playing football in the street and accidentally broke
one of the windows in The Kabin. Rita Sullivan was furious
and marched across the road to confront his mother. Cilla leaned
out of the bedroom window, clearly not bothered what her son
was getting up to but denied he'd broken the window. She then
returned to bed. The following day, things got worse. He was
dared by his friend Bradley to steal from The Kabin. He snuck
in, noticed it was empty and began to fill his pockets. Rita
came out of the back and saw what he was doing. He tried to
run but she grabbed him and during a search, all his ill-gotten
gains fell to the floor. As he tried to escape her clutches,
he tripped and hit his head on a shelf. Rita, immediately overcome
with concern, helped him up but he just left after syaing he
was fine. Rita felt badly so after Norris returned from the
cash and carry, went over with some comics and sweets to see
how he was. Les praised her for what she did and told Chesney
off. Rita was pleased Chesney said he was okay and left them
to it. However, when Cilla heard what had happened, pound signs
filled her eyes and she demanded they take Chesney to hospital
and Rita to court for compensation. Chesney's injuries were
only minor but Cilla was determined to make a big deal out
of it. She called the police and Rita was charged with assault.
They even saw an ambulance-chasing lawyer who said they would
be lucky to get £500. That wasn't good enough for Cilla.
She taunted Rita and one night as Rita was locking up, forced
her way in and informed her she wanted £5,000 and she
would drop it. Rita was resolute and told her to go to hell.
But Cilla never let up even when Chesney was supposedly so
badly injured he couldn't go anywhere, but was playing on the
street. At the trial, she made out she was mother earth and
had coached Chesney what to say beforehand. Rita was disgusted
at that as well as the £500 compensation and £500
costs she had to pay and ended up in the cells overnight for
contempt of court. Les was perfectly happy with it, but Cilla
wasn't and was determined to go to Florida like she promised
her boy. More taunts from Cilla, who in another furtive meeting
in the Kabin when no one else was around, offered to drop the
civil suit for £3,000. Rita was still having none of
it. Les eventually managed to persuade Cilla to drop it.
A few months later, Chesney got a pleasant surprise.
Due to Maya pretending to have killed Tyrone's dog Monica,
she bought a Great Dane puppy as a present from a mystery person
and left it on his doorstep. When Monica returned home, Tyrone
gave the puppy called Schmeichel to Chesney. He was delighted
but Cilla hated the thing. When Chesney found out Cilla was
seeing her old boyfriend Ronnie behind Les's back, she threatened
to have the dog put down if he told. He eventually confessed
to Fiz but Cilla tried worming her way out of it when Fiz told
Les. he believed Cilla until Chesney piped up and said it was
true. Cilla threatened the dog again but Les threw her out,
saying he wanted nothing of hers in the house. Chesney decided
to run away to London with Schmeichel but Rita found him waiting
at the bus stop. She tricked him into going to the shop with
her while she rang Fiz to tell her by saying Schmeichel needed
food. As Norris helped Chesney fill his pockets, Rita spoke
to Fiz after telling Chesney she was looking up the bus times
and agreed to look after him that night. She then returned
to Chesney and said the last bus had gone and he was welcome
to stay with her. He declined but changed his mind when she
pointed out Schmeichel needed rest. The following day Les was
called to Street Cars to take a fare to London. Pleased at
such a job he gladly accepted but his joy turned to sadness
when he saw the fare was Chesney. He readily agreed to take
him back in. But then Chesney started bunking off school and
spent time with the dog. Things were fine in the Battersby
household until Cilla returned one day, expecting to pick up
with Les where she left off. She hadn't counted on her rival
Janice being with Les though. She started to turn Chesney against
Janice and Les even had to separate them when they had a fight.
Les asked Janice to move in while Cilla used Chesney to see
Les much to Janice's annoyance. Les had to choose and chose
Janice. Chesney was dragged away by his mother minus the dog
since she didn't want it. He kept calling for Les all along
the street and tightly gripped the postbox pleading but to
no avail. Les felt bad but there wasn't a lot he could do.
Cilla was pleased when the romance with Janice fizzled out.
She and Chesney moved back in. All was going well until Cilla
decided she and Les needed a break. She asked Fiz to look after
her brother but she refused, saying she was going out. Knowing
this, Cilla lied and off she and Les went. Chesney soon ran
out of food for him and Schmeichel but when the electricity
card ran out, he knew he had to do something. He went across
the road and asked Tommy Harris if he could lend him some money
to buy a new card. Tommy and Angela were disgusted anyone could
leave the boy alone and invited him to stay with them until
his sister got back. When Cilla and Les did, in typical Cilla
fashion, she made out she was entirely blameless and it was
Fiz's fault.
Chesney continued being the cheeky tyke throughout
the rest of the year and hid with Sophie Webster under the
buffet table in the Rover's back room on New Year's Eve where
they overheard many conversations. As the older residents were
criticising Sally Webster, Sophie was trying to kiss Chesney.
Sophie stormed out leaving Chesney to con Blanche, Emily, Vera,
Betty and Rita out of money by making out what a miserable
Christmas he'd had, even though part of it was true, especially
about no proper dinner.
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His little heart was cruelly broken by his mother
twice concerning his dog, Schmeichel. First of all, due to
him chewing her make-up, she ordered he be kept at the kennels.
Then no sooner had the dog returned home than he was destroying
one of her shoes so she sold him to her friend Yana and made
out to everyone he'd run away. When she tried to get the dog
back, Yana wanted £200, double what she'd paid. So Cilla
pretended he'd been kidnapped, cut out letters from a paper
to make a ransom demand then dropped it on the mat. Fiz and
Kirk eventually discovered what she'd done after the dog was
safely back with Chesney and forced her to be nice to Chesney
and the dog or they'd tell.
By mid-March, Cilla started being selfish again.
She wanted to go away with Les and after failing to con Fiz
into looking after her brother, succeeded getting the Croppers
to do it. Hayley had been surprised when Cilla brought him
round the same day, since Roy hadn't warned her. Chesney settled
in quite well and was enjoying being spoilt. He made up a sob
story about having to do the cleaning, washing, ironing, breakfast
and Roy fell for it. As they were about to sit down and watch
a video, Chesney turned on the waterworks, saying he missed
Schmeichel and wanted him there. Roy eventually relented but
before the night was out, the huge dog had been collected and
made a beeline for Roy. Roy told him he was afraid of dogs
ever since the neighbour's ate Geoffrey, his Gerbil when he
was young. Roy eventually got on with Schmeichel and tried
to instil discipline in him much to Chesney's amusement. His
few days stay ended up being weeks, Cilla and Les working in
Spain. He really missed his mother despite enjoying his stay
with the Croppers. Roy decided to take him to Spain to be with
them but they hadn't realised Les and Cilla had arrived back
and they passed each other at the airport. They missed the
plane and returned to the cafe. Chesney was delighted to see
his mum again. His joy wasn't to last though when, at the end
of May, his beloved dog was hit by the bus Claire was driving
on her first day.
Schmeichel survived but the vet's bill was nearly £1000.
Despite Ashley's protests, Claire paid but had been conned
out of an extra £200 by Cilla. He started taking quite
a shine to young Sophie Webster, now they'd added a year to
her age and tried to talk to Les about women. In September
Les's beloved Status Quo were in the Rovers. Chesney tried
to tell him but even after he got Rick Parfitt and Francis
Rossi's autograph on Les's denim jacket, he was accused of
faking them and ruining his jacket. On Halloween he acted as
page boy at his mother and Les's fake wedding they held just
for the presents.
During 2006 Chesney was adopted by Les and they
changed their names to Battersby-Brown. Not much happened to
Chesney until towards the end of the year. His mother had been
acting strangely leading to him and Les believing she was having
an affair. So Les took comfort in Cilla's friend Yana. Chesney
caught them in flagrante on the sofa. It was revealed Cilla
had cancer. Les felt guilty and once Cilla discovered his infidelity,
tricked them all into believing it was malignant and she would
die. They raised money for her to take Chesney to Florida only
once they uncovered her lies, she had no compassion for what
she'd put her son through, took the money and went to Florida
alone.
2007 was also a fairly quiet start to the year.
He got a part in the school production of Bugsy Malone.
Halfway through Les got a job as a roadie for a Status Quo
tribute band, never to be seen again.
