Emmerdale fans were in for a shock when they tuned in to the ITV soap on Tuesday night (June 14) as Nicola King was brutally attacked. The character had gone on a spontaneous trip out with half-sister Bernice Blackstock and Laurel Thomas.
Nicola and Bernice had just made up after Nicola messed up Bernice's chances with a guy at the council. So the trio headed out to a bar in an attempt to find romantic suitors for Laurel and Bernice when they bumped into a group of guys. One took a shine to Laurel and Bernice tried chatting to a few others.
Feeling a gooseberry, Nicola decided to leave but as she went to go, Bernice told her she had left her house keys in her car. So Nicola headed off to collect them before making her way back to the village. But when she made her way to the car park, she couldn't help having a snipe at a couple of girls who appeared to have been drinking.
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As the pair exchanged words with the Dales resident, she ended up accosted by a bigger group of teenage girls. They tormented her, pushing her to the floor and going through the belongings in her bag before throwing her phone and keys across the car park and telling her to 'go fetch'.
As she did, they filmed as they pushed her back to the ground and violently assaulted her, with an upset and injured Nicola begging them to stop. But the girls continued to laugh and encourage the main culprit on, as she continued to kick the character as she lay defenceless on the floor.
They eventually stopped but ran off, leaving Nicola unable to move in an empty car park with nobody to call for help. And Emmerdale viewers shared their horror at witnessing the awful scenes. @AsenDance2 tweeted: "Poor Nicola, that was hard to watch #Emmerdale." @pollye1961 commented: "This was so disturbing to watch."
@fussyMcWhiskers shared: "#Emmerdale Nicola is a Marmite character who talks tough but she's very vulnerable. She still has signs of the disability she sustained after receiving a head injury a few years ago. To see those girls attack her was sickening."
Others, however, were unhappy with the soap airing the brutal scenes. @nannasueg said: "Absolutely no need to show violence on a family show. Disgraceful." @debbie62sews shared: "Shouldn't have been on so early in the evening."
@lizjrobertson commented: "Didn’t like this violent scene, no need for it at all." @sharon.ambrose.5 complained: "Why tho don't understand why you've had to bring MORE violence into show do you not think there's been enough."
Nicola's attack comes a couple of months after Billy Fletcher was the victim of a vile racist attack. The character had been out drinking with father-in-law Will Taylor when he was goaded and called names by Jordan before beating him up.
He was being defended by Billy's neighbour Ethan Anderson, however, when the lawyer had a change of heart and realised he couldn't represent him anymore, his violent client turned on him and he too suffered a brutal attack.
