Emmerdale boss Laura Shaw has confirmed that Tom King’s (James Chase) abuse of wife Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) will continue for quite some time.
The long-running story, which began prior to their engagement last year, has seen Tom emotionally manipulate Belle and at times, physically abuse her.
He’s also tracked her every movement and in the last week, we’ve seen him lock her in the house whilst a fire broke out in the kitchen. Luckily, she woke up in time to notice the blaze and extinguish it, but alarm bells started ringing in her head when she noticed both of the doors were locked.
To make matters worse, she’s now found out she’s pregnant with his baby, and has sought help from an abortion clinic.
Sadly, in upcoming scenes he learns the truth about the termination and seeks revenge.
Prior to that, Belle will confess to her mental health coordinator that she lied to Tom about having a miscarriage and during their conversation it soon dawns on her that the reality of her situation is that her husband is, in fact, an abuser.
Little does she know, back in the village, Noah (Jack Downham) innocently tells Tom that he saw Belle in town when she was supposed to be walking her dog.
All hell breaks loose, and he begins to smash up the barn he’s in – but as raises the metal bar above his head it connects with the rotary isolator and sends an electric shock through his body, sending him flying across the room.
We imagine audiences across the country will be cheering with the knowledge this is the end of Tom’s wicked ways, but producer Laura Shaw has confirmed that this isn’t the case.
‘We said right from the beginning that we wanted to tell this story as authentically and truthfully as we can’ she told us.
‘Let’s face it, for people who are subjected to domestic abuse this isn’t something that’s over in a couple of weeks, it’s something that goes on for a long length of time and we wanted to be truthful to that.
‘I think you can expect that this storyline is going to run until the end of this year.’
On the planned ending for the storyline, she added: ‘I think we’ve always had a good idea in our heads exactly where we wanted it to end, if I’m honest.
‘Obviously we’ve found new twists and turns as we’ve gone through but we’ve always had a pretty clear picture in our heads of where it would end.’
Well aware that his time in the show could soon come to an end, actor James Chase said: ‘He can’t get away with it. I don’t know to what extent that would be, or how the storyline would end but I would think it would have to be something like that because she needs justice for what’s happened to her.
‘The viewer needs that, for all the hell we’ve seen Belle get put through we have to see her win in the end, or at the very least for him to lose. If there is a certain end point you know you can push it really far.’
