in late 2003, tommy and angela separated. katy was dating martin platt (sean wilson) and though disapproving, angela could not bear to be estranged from her daughter. tommy was adamant that if angela was stay in touch with katy, he was not going to be a part of it. angela left briefly but returned and insisted that tommy left. tommy began drinking and eventually kevin had no choice but to fire him. tommy lived in the flat over "streetcars", jobless for a while. shortly before christmas, craig, upset that his family was torn apart because of martin, rigged the brakes on martin's car. he told his father what he had done, but before tommy could fix the damage, they saw katy drive off with martin and followed them. after katy got out of the car, she saw her father following martin and called him to warn him. she thought tommy was going to kill martin but tommy had been trying to get martin's attention to make him pull over. the brakes failed before this could happen and martin crashed the car. tommy pulled him out before the car exploded but took the blame for the rigged brakes so craig would not get into trouble. craig could not cope with his guilt and confessed to martin who told the police he knew his brakes were bad and had not got them checked. he made an uneasy peace with tommy and angela but tommy still did not like martin being with his daughter. in early 2005, katy told angela and tommy that she was pregnant and they were not happy. in march, tommy saw martin and sally webster (sally dynevor) together and thought they were having an affair. he told katy and when angela overheard something, she too believed it and they told katy. katy did not believe them, knowing how he felt about martin but when angela believed it, she thought it could be true. devastated, she left martin and aborted their baby. gail platt (helen worth) told angela that sally had had an affair but not with martin. angela told katy that martin was not unfaithful, infuriating katy. katy visited martin and told him she was sorry but he dumped her so katy went to confront tommy. angry that he was not bothered and continued to insult martin, katy picked up a wrench he had been working with at the garage and hit him over the head, killing him.