Soap fans inundated Ofcom with complaints after a recent episode of ITV’s . The regulatory body received 62 complaints over a “sick” storyline involving child abduction and violence, which aired on December 5.
The complaints come as fans have recently seen newcomer Jade, played by Twinnie-Lee Moore, return to the Dales looking for her missing money.
Back in November, after an unlawful fight between Ross Barton (Mike Pard) and Billy Fletcher (Jay Kontzle), Jade was left enraged when she discovered that £10,000 had been stolen. Unbeknown to Jade and Ross, it was actually Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb) who had taken the money.
However, that didn’t stop the criminal from blaming Ross and looking to seek her revenge. She promised that there would be repercussions and true to her word she and her gang carried out a “sickening” act during the episode that sparked complaints.
Events took a dramatic turn when Jade and her fellow baddies kidnapped April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan). In an attempt to teach Ross a lesson, Jade had her henchman dangle the teenager from a multi-storey car park in horrific scenes.
Jade caused fury with her actions towards April on Emmerdale (Image: ITV)
In a cruel twist, it turned out that the chosen location to torture the teen was actually the same place where her mother Donna (Verity Rushworth) died ten years ago.
Eventually Mack handed over the remaining cash to Jade but she was absolutely livid to discover that the cash was £3,000 short. This time April was safe, but the criminal made more threats – suggesting that she might take Ross’s son Moses for a day out, just as she did with April.
Fans at home were clearly horrified with the scenes as they filed complaints with Ofcom. Others chose to take their anger to social media.
Posting to X/Twitter, one viewer wrote: “@ Absolutely ridiculous. ‘s writers have it. Writing s**te, unrealistic, b****cks just for shock, it’s pathetic.
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April was dangled from a multistory car park (Image: ITV)
“Even in this messed up world, pathetic crooks don’t kidnap kids & threaten to throw them off multistorey car parks for 10 Gs..you insult your viewers..& Yorkshire.”
Another added: “Who’s writing this stuff? First, Tom manipulates 2 children, and now Jade has a dumbfcuk holding another child off a car park roof. Leave them kids alone. #.”
A third echoed: “Why kidnap someone’s child unrelated to the issue, unless the kidnapper wrote the script#,” and a fourth said: “# If you find it distressing, turn the program off.”
One more added: “Happy Christmas everyone. Before anyone says ‘just turn it off’ I make the effort to watch this pile of crap with my partner, who loves it.”