Emmerdale’s DI Mark Bails: The policeman who abused Charity Dingle

Tonight (Monday, July 22), Charity feared for Belle’s safety and shared her concerns with Cain. She admitted that Tom reminded her of DI Bails.

DI Mark Bails in Emmerdale was the creepy policeman who raped and abused Charity Dingle – and fathered her son, Ryan Stocks.

So what’s the story with Charity and the creepy cop?

Who was DI Bails?

DI Bails was a man with a grudge!

Back in 2014, Charity’s ex-husband Declan Macey, involved her in his insurance fraud. But though Bails seemed to think he could send Charity to prison, there was no evidence.

But Bails wasn’t going to give up and instead he turned his attention to Debbie Dingle – Charity’s daughter.

By pulling a lot of strings, and doing some dodgy deals, Bails managed to get Pete Barton – who was then Debbie’s boyfriend – charged with manslaughter.

And then – by pulling some other strings and doing some more dodgy deals – Bails told Pete and Debbie that he could make the charges go away, if they stitched up Charity.

Pete and Debbie went along with it, but when they found out the truth about Charity’s past, they backed out.

But Charity confessed to the insurance fraud anyway and went to prison.

Charity’s past

It turned out, Bails had known Charity back in the day when she was a runaway teenager. She’d thought he was rescuing her when he put her up in a flat, but actually he abused her and raped her.

Eventually Charity ran away and reported Bails. Not for rape, but for beating her up. It was enough to make him miss out on promotion, and broke up his first marriage.

And that’s why he held on to his grudge against poor Charity.

The truth about DI Mark Bails in Emmerdale revealed

A few years later, when Tracy Metcalfe reported a former punter who was harassing her, it was DI Bails who investigated.

Charity revealed all about her abuse to Tracy and her sister Vanessa, who was Charity’s partner at the time.

Bails offered her money to stay quiet, but Charity bravely reported him.

Finding Ryan

Charity had been pregnant as a teenager. After a traumatic birth, she ran away, believing her baby boy had died. She wanted to find out what happened to her son and instead discovered he had survived and been adopted by the midwife Irene Stocks.

Charity met Ryan, and built a relationship.

It was his agreement to provide a DNA sample that added the final piece to the jigsaw that put DI Bails behind bars for the rest of his life.

The death of DI Bails

DI Bails died at the start of January 2023 after suffering from a heart attack whilst in prison.

Charity was a mess when she received a phone call detailing Bail’s death, turning to Cain for support.

She then went to visit Bail’s grave with Cain, with everything Bail did coming to the forefront of her mind as she broke down.

Who played DI Mark Bails in Emmerdale?

DI Mark Bails was played by Rocky Marshall.

He is a familiar face to telly fans having appeared in shows including Holby City, Doctors, The Royal, Bones, The Bill and others.

He also played Colonel Datoo in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.

And he’s been a regular on stage, too.