Emmerdale’s Charity falls apart following horror attack but hides the grim truth

Emmerdale’s Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) called Dr Caitlin Todd’s (Caroline Harker) bluff over her blackmail plot and she backed down, claiming that she couldn’t actually ruin Sarah’s (Katie Hill) life.

Charity forced Todd’s hand by refusing to pay her after Kim Tate (Claire King) dropped out of buying the pub. Telling Todd to just go ahead and release the secret, Todd appeared to call a truce.

Charity was then subjected to a sexual assault from Doctor Todd. While Caitlin might not be able to destroy Sarah’s life, she has no qualms about ruining Charity’s.

So on top of carrying the weight of all her lies, Charity now has a fear of further violence and is struggling with the trauma of what happened. None of which she can tell another living soul.

Manpreet Sharma (Rebecca Sarker) checks on her when she sees that Charity is in a bad place, but there’s no way she can reveal what’s truly wrong. Instead, ever ready with a fresh lie, Charity tells the doc she thinks she has Post-Natal Depression.

Manpreet agrees with the diagnosis and prescribes medication, leaving Charity balancing this new lie on top of everything else.

Charity feels more alone than ever. She struggles to contain her emotions when Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb) returns home, and she learns that he has told Sarah about her mental health. Sick to the stomach of what is going on around her, she grabs a packet of sleeping pills and wine to mask her pain.

But there is an unexpected twist to Charity’s new lie, Sarah takes full responsibility and begins drowning in guilt. She believes Charity is battling PND all because she was Sarah’s surrogate – making it all her fault.

Charity tries to reassure here that it’s not the case and that there’s ‘more going on’, but not being able to say what does little to reassure Sarah.

Mack is left comforting Sarah as she sobs at being the reason Charity is so unwell.

But as Charity’s own guilt soars, will Manpreet’s decision to give fragile Charity medication prove a dangerous one?

Producer of the show Sophie Roper discussed the important storyline and said: ‘Charity’s storyline will explore the impact of sexual violence, and though this heinous act is fundamentally about power, we’ll explore the complexities of how Charity processes her trauma when the perpetrator is a woman.

‘With little conversation surrounding female-on-female assault, we’ll explore the overwhelming feelings of isolation many survivors experience and will examine the disparity between the legal term sexual assault and the fact that many women in Charity’s position feel this minimises what’s happened to them, because they feel like they’ve been raped.

‘Though difficult viewing at times, Charity’s resilience will inspire hope as she confronts what has happened to her.’