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Steven Richard Owen was the son of Richard and Barbara Owen, ex-husband of Mel and father of Hunter.

Backstory[]

Born Steven Richard Owen on the 19th March 1965 to Richard Owen and Barbara Owen. Steve had an older sister Jackie Owen. He once dated a woman called Tricia. Over the years Steve gained a reputation as a nightclub owner, and lived in Soho for a time.

Storylines[]

19982002[]

Steve Owen arrived in Albert Square in December 1998 to buy The Market Cellar and renamed it e20. His obsessive ex-girlfriend, Saskia Duncan, turns up to tries to come between Steve and his new love interest Melanie Healy.

On 14th February 1999, Saskia comes between Steve and Mel once more and she starts to knock him about and manages to grab Steve's tie, strangling him, causing him to reach for the nearest object (an ashtray) in the office and hitting Saskia over the head killing her instantly. Witnessed by Matthew Rose he helps Steve bury the body in Epping Forest. Matthew wants to confess but Steve pressures him not to. Steve keeps Matthew in check.

A few months later, Saskia's body is found and Matthew confesses to the police and by the end of the trail, Matthew is found guilty of manslaughter instead of Steve. When Matthew is released, he takes his revenge on Steve by threatening to burn him alive but says he just wanted to make Steve suffer. Matthew then leaves the area for good, and Steve turns to drugs as a result the drugs nearly killed Steve's business partner Beppe di Marco after he took a mixture. Billy Mitchell was the supplier. Steve returns to Walford after beating his addiction and rescues Mel from her former boyfriend Dan Sullivan and the pair start a relationship. Steve holds Dan hostage with a gun and tells him to leave Walford or he will kill him.

On 1st March 2001, before marrying Mel, Steve finds out that Mel had a one night stand with his archenemy Phil Mitchell; on the night of their marriage, Phil is shot by an unknown assailant. Thereafter Phil's godson Jamie Mitchell begins to suspect that Steve shot Phil, but it is later revealed that Steve is innocent when Phil confronts the real culprit – his ex-girlfriend Lisa Shaw. Afterwards, Phil proceeded to frame Dan for the crime and Steve later decides to help testify against their common enemy. However, Dan is found not guilty after his trial in August 2001.

It is then Dan sought revenge against both Phil and Steve for conspiring to frame him for the shooting, as Dan is hell-bent on settling his score with Phil and also plans to get one over Steve upon believing that the latter was the shooter all along. Dan executes his plan by kidnapping Mel, before alerting both Steve and Phil over the situation and demanding £100,000 each from them – £200,000 in total – in exchange for her release. Steve and Phil comply and they manage to acquire the ransom money, before they later get into an argument over who should deliver it when Phil proposes killing Dan whereas Steve is more concerned over Mel's safety. Dan then demands Phil deliver the money; Phil complies and attempts to kill Dan, but fails and the latter escapes after releasing Mel from captivity.

Moments later, Mel reunites with Steve and he is relieved that she is safe. However, she then confronts him over his lies; during her captivity, Mel had learned from Dan the extent of Steve's illicit activities and this caused her to believe that Steve shot Phil and framed Dan for the crime. She also learns that Steve had secretly brought The Queen Vic in partnership with Phil's old lover Sharon Watts. After finding out that Steve had also lied about Mel co-owning the E20 when in fact he is still the club's sole owner, she responded by burning down the E20 and leaves the square after breaking up with Steve.

The follow-up of both Mel's kidnapping and the E20 fire incident sees Steve endure financial problems; his insurance has been invalidated due to Steve's illicit activities such as Saskia's murder and a previous crime in which he illegally imported duty-free wines from France in a bid to cut costs from his old nightclub. In a last resort to avoid bankruptcy, Steve organizes a robbery with his errand boy and Phil's cousin Billy Mitchell along with some members of Steve's old gang; together they set out to rob a wealthy businessman named Alan during which Steve attempts to trap Alan's mistress Jan Sherwood. This succeeds after the pair have a one night stand together, and in the end Steve and Jan split the money that was stolen – with Steve having fooled his own gang into believing that Jan stole all the money. Afterwards, Mel returns to the square and Steve manages to reconcile with her; she initially dated his new love rival Nathan Williams, but they break up and Steve woos Mel into giving their marriage another chance.

In January 2002, Steve and Phil continue with their feud after Steve lies to Phil by saying that he slept with Sharon. In response Phil brutally attacks Steve and is charged for assault.

In February 2002, Steve gets final revenge on Phil by sleeping with his sister, Sam Mitchell and plans to flee to the United States with Mel, Lisa and her boyfriend, Mark Fowler and Phil daughter, Louise. However, Phil finds out that Steve has got Louise and the pair have a high speed car chase and Steve crashes into two petrol tanks and Phil rescues Louise. He runs back for Steve, but hesitates, hoping the thorn in his side Steve will die in the burning car, and the car explodes into flames, killing Steve instantly.

Aftermath[]

At Steve's funeral, Mel receives some morbid gifts addressed to Steve – one of which is a bag of flowers and a card saying 'gotcha' from her ex-boyfriend Dan Sullivan, and the other being another card that says 'Dear Steve, rot in hell' from Steve's former employee-turned-enemy Matthew Rose.

After the funeral, Mel gives Phil Steve's ashes. Before flushing Steve's ashes down the toilet, Phil decides to scatter Steve on his mum's grave, Barbara Owen, and Phil says, 'rest in peace'. Mel was a month pregnant when Steve died, she then left Walford and have birth to their son Hunter Owen in late 2002.

In February 2018, Melanie returned to Walford after fifteen years away. Billy Mitchell was asked by her son Hunter if he knew a man who lived round here named 'Steve Owen' but Billy had lied, after reminiscing about Steve. Hunter had been told that his father was a lovely and benevolent man but found out that he killed Saskia Duncan in 1999 and framed Matthew for it.

Kill count[]

Murders/manslaughter victims[]

  1. Saskia Duncan (15 February 1999) (defence) – Bludgeoned with an ashtray while she was strangling him

See also[]

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