Laura Awoyinka made her first appearance on 5 March 2020, and her last appearance on 20 December 2021. She was portrayed by Sarah Paul.
Storylines[]
Laura is a partner at the law firm that Gray Atkins works for. When Gray decides he wants to drop Kush Kazemi's grievous bodily harm (GBH) charge and Whitney Dean's murder charge due to stress, Laura encourages him to continue with the cases. She also asks Gray to persuade Kush to change his plea to guilty and reminds him that she has defended him to other partners at the firm before. Laura visits Gray at his home to congratulate him on the result of Kush's case and to wish him luck for Whitney's bail hearing. She tells him that Whitney needs to receive bail and warns him that Sophie Rundell will be the prosecution solicitor at the hearing. Gray loses the bail hearing, so Laura visits him at his home to warn him that he will be formally suspended during the following week, devastating him.
When the law firm drop Whitney's case, Gray decides to take it on. Gray then invites her around to his house to tell her about the new evidence that Leo King was stalking Whitney from her attic and watching her sleep. He tells her he will make a watertight case, get the jury to return a not guilty verdict and when he does he wants his job back. Laura reminds him that even if he wins, the law firm have to consider his judgement of Leo, the solicitor Gray employed at the firm while he was stalking Whitney. Laura later bumps into Gray and his family in the street, where she states that she is looking forward to their meeting with Whitney, who has gone missing. When she arrives for the meeting, she instead meets some of Whitney's friends and family, who offer to be character witnesses. However, Laura wants to see Whitney instead, so they claim that she is unwell.
Laura and Gray later meet to discuss Whitney's trial; Laura wants to remove Gray from the case as his wife, Chantelle Atkins, has recently died, but Gray wants to continue regardless. During the trial, Whitney's solicitor becomes ill, so Laura tries to persuade Judge Adams to postpone the closing statements to the following day; the judge refuses, so Laura informs Whitney and her aunt, Sonia Fowler, that they will need to get a solicitor from the firm to stand in; Whitney suggests that Gray do it.
When Gray arrives, Laura and Sonia agree that Gray is not suitable for the job, but point out that they have to trust Whitney's decision. Following a not guilty verdict for Whitney, Laura congratulates Gray on his work and offers him his job back; he informs her that he is not returning to work, which surprises Laura.
Laura later sees Gray with Whitney at a gala event, and, believing them to be a couple, expresses surprise that Gray has moved on so quickly after Chantelle's death. Gray lies that they are indeed a couple, insisting that love has no timetable. A few months after this, Gray attends a colleague's birthday party, now accompanied by Chelsea Fox when he encounters Laura again. Gray gets drunk and climbs onto a table and trips and falls. Laura makes fun of him and smirks as he leaves., Gray vents that he thinks Laura has a vendetta against him since she won't give him a promotion or any complex cases at work. When Chelsea takes a drunken Gray home, Laura comes round and warns Chelsea to get away from him while she can, as Gray will try to break her down and remodel her in his image as he did with Chantelle.
Gray is later seen sending Laura a message on her Twitter account under the pseudonym Jasper, that says "People like you always get what's coming". On 30 August 2021 she comes to Gray's house to fire him and whilst she is there, she confronts him saying she knows what kind of a man he really is and angers Gray.
On 16 December 2021, she visits Gray Atkins at 1 Albert Square to tell him she knows he has been bad mouthing her clients and he only gets one chance before she goes to the police with the misogynistic post that Gray sent her. Gray says to her if she had proof she would have already went to the Police, Laura replies you want the gloves off, they are off and walks out. She bumps into Whitney Dean outside the Chippy and tells he is a monster and she has defended 16 murders. She strongly recommends that Whitney stays far away from Gray and that she gets and Chelsea away from him before he destroys her.
Whitney phones Laura's office to ask her to met her at Joanna's Café. They meet and Whitney asks her to talk to Chelsea but Laura says she has already tried and she can't help her.
List of appearances[]
2020[]
- 5 March 2020
- 6 March 2020
- 17 March 2020
- 27 April 2020
- 8 October 2020
- 13 October 2020
- 15 October 2020