Alastair Porter

Alastair Porter (b. 27th July 1965) has been a resident of North Grove from the years 1965 - 1990 and from 2002 - present.

He is the only son of Betty and Neil Porter and has two sisters, Charlotte and Linda, the latter being his twin.

Alastair has always been an ambitious human being, something he took off his father and he worked his way up to be a high in demand accountant. Alastair is also the father of Gabriella and Nathan.

Childhood
Alastair was born in 1965 at North Grove General Hospital with his twin Linda born just after to Betty and Neil. Alastair already had an older sister Charlotte who doted on the twins when they were babies.

His Uncle Brian died when he was just three years old which left his Aunt May and cousins in peril. This led to them moving in with Alastair and his family for three months. During this time, Alastair bonded with cousin Jack and they both got along really well and stayed good friends way into adulthood with Jack being his best man at his wedding and Alastair being his best man.

Alastair never had any major trouble as a child or teenager, always wanting to stay inside and study. With there not being much to do in the way of internet and there only being three channels on television, he was always in his room or on the odd occasion he went outside to play or hand around with his friends.

His Departure and Marriage to Harriet
In 1990, Alastair had a good job in North Grove where he sorted out all of the money for the mechanics, building yard and plasterers. They all paid him good money and all the companies used him together. However, when he went for a lads' weekend away, he met Harriet Ings. They soon started to see each other more and in June she asked him to move in with her.

He agreed and on 2nd July, he left with Harriet to start a new life.

His mother Betty was the most affected by his decision and tried everything to get him to stay but he just told her simply, 'he loved her' and that was enough for him to move away.

In 1994, they married each other in North Grove which according to Alastair had been due to a lot of persuading on his side as she wanted to get married on a Country Estate in Yorkshire. Before the couple even married it was evident that they were having problems with each other.

Fatherhood and Return To North Grove
In 1995, Harriet and himself had a daughter, Gabriella Elizabeth Porter and in 1997, the couple had a son, Nathan Alastair Porter. Alastair had taken to fatherhood more than well and he loved his children, always being there for their first steps and other firsts.

However, Harriet was starting to allow Alastair from going back home and by the time Nathan was born he was only visiting North Grove once a year at most which annoyed his morther and family. One time, Jack came up to see if he was okay and Harriet told him that it if he went out with Jack, who had spent ages planning the trip, she would sleep at her mothers with the children.

She was becoming more and more controlling to the point where Alastair was not trusted by her at all and she tried to control ever aspect of his life, even when he wanted to quit his job to focus on his dream of being the leader of fellow accountants she refused to let him as it meant that he would not work in the same company as she anymore.

In 2001, he finally had enough and decided that she was too controlling and was poisoning their children's lives by turning them against him so he took them with him and returned to North Grove where he demanded a divorce with the help of his family.

What ensued was a bitter court case over custody which when reviewing both cases came to the conclusion that the children should alternate between parents but due to Alastair wanting to live in North Grove and Harriet being spiteful and not moving away from Newcastle the two came to the agreement that Alastair would have the children in the holidays.

Life Back In North Grove
Alastair was devastated when he found that he would not be seeing his children on a regular basis and in the first year of being seperated from them nearly moved back to Newcastle four different times. He always changed his mind though when he knew that Harriet would try and get him to stay at their house and rekindle their relationship - something Alastair did not.

This all came to a head when Gabriella told her father when she was thirteen years old that she wanted to live with him as she hated how controlling and demanding her mother was. Alastair, wanting to do the correct thing by his daughter told his solicitor and he advised going back to court with Harriet.

After the second custody battle, the children's opinions were considered and Alastair was granted Primary Residence. Due to this, Harriet moved closer to North Grove as she could not afford the train fares like Alastair could as the cutsody battle had cost a lot.

Family
Mother: Elizabeth 'Betty' Porter

Father: Neil Porter

Sisters: Charlotte Dane and Linda Etheridge

Daughter: Gabriella Porter

Son: Nathan Porter

Aunt: May Porter

Uncle: Brian Porter

Cousins: Helen Jones, Pauline Jessop, Denise Burrows, Frances Groom and Jack Porter

Nephews: Andrew Dane and Anthony Etheridge

Niece: Kelly Nuttall