Emmerdale’s Charity bravely reports Doctor Todd to the police after sexual assault

The following article contains spoilers from the episode of Emmerdale dated June 8. It hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX and YouTube.

Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) reported Doctor Caitlin Todd (Caroline Harker) to the police in Emmerdale today, after being sexually assaulted by her.

The evil surgeon has been blackmailing Charity for weeks over baby Leyla’s parentage. At first, Caitlin wanted £10,000 from Charity in exchange for her silence, but increased the price to £100,000 after finding out that Charity is the co-owner of the pub.

A few days ago, Charity robbed some items from the depot and managed to give Caitlin £30,000, promising that she’d find the rest of the money as soon as possible. This wasn’t good enough for Doctor Todd, and she told Charity that if the cash wasn’t in her hands within the next 24 hours, she’d reveal the secret about baby Leyla at Sarah Sugden’s (Katie Hill) birthday party.

Yesterday, Doctor Todd took great pleasure in reminding Charity of her deadline.

The beloved character eventually became consumed by her woes and decided to hit the bottle to try and ignore everything around her. The alcohol made Charity bold though, and it led to her taking a new approach by telling Doctor Todd that she should tell Sarah the truth.

This made Caitlin – a woman who thinks she needs to be in control the entire time – feel as though she wasn’t. At Jacobs Fold, Caitlin waited for Charity to pass out as a result of her alcohol, and then proceeded to lock the front door and sexually assault her.

Today’s episode of the ITV soap began with Charity attempting to process what had just happened to her.

She had received a voice note from Sarah – who was wondering where she had got to – and decided to put some lipstick on and head back to the pub.

Charity couldn’t handle being in the Woolpack with everyone though, and made an excuse so she could leave. She ended up at the police station, where she told the officer at the desk that she needs to report a sexual assault.

The detective in charge listened to Charity, who detailed what Doctor Todd had done to her. The detective also explained to Charity that it would be beneficial for the investigation if she underwent a physical examination to collect evidence.

Charity wanted to do whatever possible to prove her allegation, and endured the uncomfortable and invasive process, all while trying to get her head around the attack.

Back in the interview room, the detective told Charity that they will soon arrest Caitlin for sexual assault.

She was forced to head home all alone, while her loved ones remained at the pub under the impression she was staying away from the party because she had drunk too much.

After a shower, Charity sat alone on the stairs and started to cry.

In upcoming episodes, Charity will continue to struggle to come to terms with the attack, having to choose between confiding in her loved ones, or internalising the trauma.

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.’