Emmerdale rape ordeal as abuser Tom King coerces Belle Dingle into having sex in dark scenes

Tom King (James Chase)’s abusive behaviour towards his wife Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) in Emmerdale is getting steadily worse.

It sometimes shows itself in small ways – like when he arrived at Wishing Well in Monday (April 22)’s episode and nudged Belle out of the seat she’d been sitting on so he could sit down.

This was just a tiny incident but Belle’s acceptance of it shows that she’s started to automatically defer to him.

Tom’s arrival at the house was to keep an eye on Vinny (Bradley Johnson). Belle was already there because she was worried about her friend, but Tom is worried for another reason.

He’s terrified that Vinny might remember something about the moment he was attacked at the scrapyard and he might realise it was Tom who hit him and left him unconscious.

Vinny eventually went upstairs for a lie down and Tom decided to take advantage of an otherwise empty house by trying to get Belle to have sex with him. She pushed him away, saying it felt weird to know that Vinny was upstairs and Mandy (Lisa Riley) might come in at any moment – plus there was her mum’s crochet blanket to think about.

The iconic granny square blankets that adorn almost every surface in the Dingles’ home are a precious reminder of Belle’s late mum Lisa (Jane Cox).

As Tom always does, he theatrically sulked, froze her out and tried to shift any blame to her. He said she’d made him feel like his dad and like she was scared he was going to rape her. Carl King (Tom Lister) was a violent man who once attempted to rape Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) in a camper van. She smashed him over the head with a brick to escape.

This strategy worked as Belle felt sorry that she’d made Tom feel bad. She assured him that he’s nothing like his dad – though he absolutely is.

As Belle tried to explain why she’d been reluctant to get intimate she mentioned Vinny and Liv (Isobel Steele)’s relationship, and Tom got her to tell him about Liv’s asexuality – and that it meant Vinny is still a virgin, as he’d recently admitted to her in confidence.

Then to prove that she wasn’t scared of Tom and to make him feel better, Belle initiated sex with him.

When Vinny came downstairs Tom made absolutely sure that he knew exactly what had been going on – theatrically zipping himself up and mentioning that the prized crochet blanket might need a bit of a clean. Way, way too much information.

It was a good day’s work as far as Tom was concerned. Not only had Belle behaved exactly how he wanted her to, but he’d also got even more ammunition over Vinny as he let the other man know that he knew about his lack of sexual experience. This could potentially also drive a wedge between Vinny and Belle as she’d broken his confidence.

All of these scenes were difficult to watch as Tom’s hold over Belle becomes tighter and we’re left wondering just how bad things could get for Belle.