Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) has been forced to apologise in EastEnders, after a complaint at Walford Police Station was dismissed.
Viewers of the BBC soap watched in horror last month as teenager Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James) was subjected to an intimate strip search.
Avani and her friends Lily Slater (Lillia Turner) and Amy Mitchell (Ellie Dadd) were bunking off school when two officers found a bag of pills at their feet.
As viewers saw, none of the girls actually handled the drugs, as they were dropped by Avani’s vape dealer when he saw the police approaching.
Several calls were made to the girls’ responsible adults, though only Jack and Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) arrived to pick up their respective youngster.
Avani’s parents Priya Nandra-Hart (Sophie Khan Levy) and Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) ignored the calls, and in response to her attitude and lack of cooperation, the police claimed they had no other option but to search her for more narcotics.
She was spooked when she was told to take off all of her clothes in front of two strangers.
One of the officers took a caring approach, whilst the other made the situation as dehumanising as possible.
Back at home, Avani was adamant not to lodge a formal complaint, but Priya was disgusted and went to the station herself.
Since then, the teen’s behaviour has spiralled and she’s turned to smoking weed and drinking alcohol to try and forget about the incident.
Earlier this week, she made amends with Amy. The two had fallen out after Jack failed to step in and prevent his colleagues from taking the situation further.
Amy pleaded with her dad to speed up the outcome of Priya’s complaint, whilst inviting Avani to a party to take her mind off things.
After meeting up with her dealer Declan (Alfie Cain), she headed to the bash but decided to bin the products she’d purchased from him.
Little did she realise, he’d soon turn up at the party and try and scout for more business.
When Amy found out she was furious, with friends Joel Marshall (Max Murray) and Denzel Danes (Jaden Ladega) attempting to throw him out of the house.
The situation escalated when Declan brandished a hammer, but luckily nobody was harmed by the time Jack arrived.
In today’s episode, he called by at the Panesar residence and demanded an audience with Priya and Ravi. He’d found the drugs that Avani binned, and wanted them to know.
Defensive of her daughter, Priya blamed Jack’s colleagues at the station as the ‘root cause’ of her issues, and wanted him to do something about her complaint.
After chasing it up, he received a frosty reception from the two coppers that strip searched Avani, who were quite glad to hear that the matter had been dropped.
He then called by to break the bad news, apologising that nothing more would be done. The only way that it would be taken further would be if Avani made the complaint herself.
What will she do?
