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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Charlotte Tutton

Emmerdale's biggest Meena blunders: Police slip-ups and deadly mistakes

Emmerdale viewers have been keeping their eyes on Meena Jutla, ever since her first killing on the ITV soap last summer.

Since Leanna Cavanagh's demise, Meena has murdered Ben Tucker and Andrea Tate, while also confessing to the murder of a friend named Nadine.

Meena did try to kill Manpreet Sharma, Vinny Dingle and Victoria Sugden too, and her latest plot saw her return to the village, after going on the run, to kill Dawn Taylor and Billy Fletcher.

It was touch and go for Meena after she attacked Harriet Finch and shot Leyla Harding this week, leading to Liam Cavanagh pushing the killer off a bridge.

Emmerdale viewers have been keeping their eyes on Meena Jutla, ever since her first killing (ITV)

Now, fans know the character has survived her brush with death, with her now in the hands of the police.

But it hasn't been the easiest of captures for the village villain, who managed to escape justice time and time again.

This has been down to a large number of failures by the police and village residents, as pointed out by viewers over the past year.

Here we look back at some of the biggest blunders that have occurred in the killer storyline...

Invisible Meena

Viewers have commented on the fact Meena has managed to carry out her crimes undetected for months (ITV)

Viewers have commented on the fact Meena has managed to carry out her crimes undetected for months.

But this escalated when, despite being wanted by the police, she managed to make her way back to the village and cause havoc.

All last week she was shown spying from afar as Dawn and Billy walked around, and faced turmoil over recent goings on.

Meena snuck into their house and destroyed Dawn's wedding dress, but also managed to get into the vets and tamper with her work.

Meena snuck into the house and destroyed Dawn's wedding dress (ITV)

Fans were baffled over how she did this with ease and no one spotted her, despite her being not that well hidden.

Similarly, she has spied on residents in the past and despite being in view, she's remained hidden - including when she snuck into The Hide before killing Ben, and when she followed Billy and Dawn to a park where they spoke with Alex about Lucas.

Most recently, she was able to attack Harriet, kidnap Lucas, attack a limousine driver and steal the vehicle, knock out Billy with a drug and then kidnap Dawn and drive the pair to a viaduct, all within an hour or so - and again undetected by a single villager.

DNA

Meena chased poor Leanna to her death (ITV)

There has been some question about Meena leaving DNA behind at her crime scenes, especially with them all being so unplanned.

Meena chased poor Leanna to her death around the village and to the bridge, before shoving her off.

Leanna grabbed Meena's hair, and after she fell Meena soon stole her ring from her corpse - yet there didn't seem to be any hair or fingerprints left behind.

As for Ben, she wore gloves during the crime (ITV)

With Andrea, the maze burned in flames so it is possible any evidence was destroyed - while it's not clear what happened with Nadine.

As for Ben, she wore gloves during the crime, but again there were questions over her hair possibly being left at the scene, given the fact she fell over after slipping on some red wine.

Despite being gloved up, she managed to get Ben's blood on her glove which is how they realised she was the killer, and not Liv Flaherty.

The Great Escape

Viewers were perplexed last month, when Meena managed to escape the village (ITV)

Viewers were perplexed last month, when Meena managed to escape the village after her killer crimes were exposed.

Despite Liam whacking her over the head with a plank of wood, she got up and legged it through the woods, and escaped the police.

One scene saw an officer shine their touch in the direction of Meena and Liam, but they somehow didn't see her and she crept away.

She hitched a lift with a passing lorry driver, and was able to flee the area and possibly the entire country.

Fans were baffled at how this was even possible, and how she managed to get so far.

Viewers were equally confused when characters were able to return to the village and leave the village in the same week, despite a heavy police presence seemingly locking down the area, as Meena remained at large.

Police Errors

The police haven't exactly been on the mark with the investigation (ITV)

The police haven't exactly been on the mark with the investigation into recent village deaths, allowing Meena to literally get away with murder.

From suggesting Leanna's death was an accident, to dropping Andrea's case and even arresting the wrong person for Ben's murder, it's not gone well.

With Andrea's case, despite them questioning Meena, they were convinced someone else had killed her - even though it was only the pair and Priya Sharma in the maze.

They arrested Liv Flaherty for Ben's murder despite there being no actual proof she had done it (ITV)

They then decided there was no foul play, and Meena was able to strike again - this time she killed Ben.

The police were willing to arrest Kim Tate for Andrea's death though, on the word of Meena stating they had a row.

Equally, they arrested Liv for Ben's murder despite there being no actual proof she had done it, once again allowing Meena to get away with it.

Fans were quick to point out though that when Vinny confirmed Liv was innocent to the detective, and that Meena had told Manpreet what she had done, they were pretty contradicting with their response.

The detective said there was no actual proof Meena did it and therefore Liv could not be freed - yet they didn't have solid proof in the first place that Liv was guilty.

They weren't in a rush to speak to Manpreet when she woke from her coma (ITV)

Other mistakes pointed out by fans were the fact they missed Meena escaping, and then also didn't spot her sneaking around the village.

Somehow Liam was able to find her and push her off a bridge before the police were even on the scene, and there wasn't exactly the biggest investigation unfolding in the village after her crimes were initially exposed either.

They weren't in a rush to speak to Manpreet when she woke from her coma, despite her being the only one to get a confession - and back in the village, it seemed officers were walking around with clipboards, instead of looking into locations and finding the evidence.

Victim slip-ups

Fans called out tragic Leanna last year when she ran through a graveyard and away from the village (ITV)

The victims and near victims of Meena didn't exactly help themselves, according to viewers.

Fans called out tragic Leanna last year when she ran through a graveyard and away from the village, instead of through the village to raise the alarm as Meena chased her.

Similarly, Andrea ran towards and through the maze to try and escape Meena and alert other villagers about her trying to drown Victoria.

Andrea ran towards and through the maze to try and escape Meena (ITV)

Poor Ben went back to The Hide to help an apparently injured Meena during their showdown, and it cost him his life as she caught him by surprise.

Fans are furious that he didn't call the police or just leave with the damning footage of Meena.

When Manpreet was being held at Wendy's house, she kept banging on the window - but fans said she should have tried to smash it open.

There's also the fact that Meena has been so weird since the off, but no one thought for a second she could be behind the crimes.

Noah did pick up on her behaviour and even found a weird box containing trophies of her victims, yet he did not make the link (ITV)

Noah did pick up on her behaviour and even found a creepy box containing trophies of her victims, yet he did not make the link and stayed quiet - even after she threatened him.

Vinny didn't exactly help himself when he set off to follow her, believing her to be Ben's killer, but he didn't tell anyone where he was going or why - and even told Meena he had a phone on him.

Fastforward to present day, and the residents were still making mistakes as claimed by viewers.

Dawn and Billy had a chance to overpower Meena together when she turned her backs to them twice, but they did nothing (ITV)

After being kidnapped, Dawn and Billy had a chance to overpower Meena together when she turned her backs to them twice, but they did nothing.

When they got her on the ground eventually, Billy threw her gun into the river instead of hanging on to it - and at no point did they steal her phone to call for help.

Their loved ones at the wedding reception also didn't call the police, despite suspecting them going missing was down to the serial killer.

When Dawn managed to flee to the village, she didn't shout out for help and instead kept looking for her missing son.

Manpreet, who had been kidnapped by Meena a month or so earlier, was walking around the village on her own despite her sister being on the loose.

Viewers also pointed out that last week, everywhere seemed to be unlocked for Meena to simply walk in and cause havoc.

Got any theories or thoughts on the storyline? Let us know in the comments section below.

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7pm on ITV, with an extra episode at 8pm on Thursdays.

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