Tom King (James Chase) had been convinced he could win his case in Emmerdale. He even confidently told Ollie that for Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper), the nightmare has just begun. But as things start to take a turn, Tom takes drastic action to remain in control.
Amelia (Daisy Campbell) has had her eyes opened to Tom and refused to speak to his character in court, so he enlisted vulnerable Angelica’s (Rebecca Bakes) help via Ollie, and she uploaded a video to social media, which Tom then used to try and derail the trial.
When the video didn’t work, Tom came up with a sick plan B.
It’s a threat he’s made twice before – that he’d take his own life if either Belle or Jimmy (Nick Miles) didn’t do as he said.
There’s a call of ‘Code Red’ from Tom’s cell – this time it wasn’t just a threat. Word gets back to Belle that Tom has been rushed to hospital, right as he’s due in court. Belle is horrified at the thought of having Tom’s death on her conscience and questions whether to go ahead with the trial.
This triggers a spiral for Belle. She turns to Paddy (Dominic Brunt) for some support around Tom’s suicide attempt, but his chat makes things worse.
But Charity (Emma Atkins) can see right through Tom and brands it a fake attempt. Actor James reveals to Metro that Charity’s appearance in his hospital room has him worried, for once.
‘He is scared because of course Charity was one of the first to know what Tom had been doing to Belle. He also knows how fiercely protective the Dingles are and how they wouldn’t stop at violence to protect those that they love.’
Charity puts her foot in it though and when she pushes him to admit the suicide attempt was fake, he twigs that Belle must be spiralling.
This is awful for Charity, but perhaps this is not such a bad thing, as Tom is now smug in the knowledge that Belle is too weak to testify. He’s so sure in fact, that he calls Ollie into his hospital room to share the good news.
Speaking of Tom’s sickening glee, James says: ‘He loves it. He loves that actual moment – and in fact I remember when we filmed that, it really was quite a moment. It is horrible – but you see the penny dropping when he realises and is really pleased.’
But he’s hit with a setback when the hospital clear him with a clean bill of health.
‘I think that this is one of those reality checking moments for Tom where he is like “oh oh” Er Okay!”’ James adds. ‘“So this trial is actually going to go ahead”…So, declaring him fit has definitely thrown a spanner in the works for him.’
On the day of the court case, it looks like he may well be right, Belle is nowhere to be seen. She’s left a mysterious note, and her family are desperate to find her. Tom, smug in the belief he’s about to walk free, prepares his Oscar-worthy performance.
The Dingles are crestfallen when they hear that without Belle, there will be no conviction, while Tom prepares to wow the jury as he steps into the limelight.
As James explains it, Tom thinks ‘I’m getting off scot-free…I’ve got this in the bag.’ But has Belle got one last shock in store?
