Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) spent the entirety of Tuesday (February 13)’s Emmerdale episode in police custody – and it doesn’t look like she’ll be going home any time soon as she was formally charged with kidnapping baby Ivy.
Rhona previously fled from the village along with the baby after realising she couldn’t bear to give her up when Gus (Alan McKenna) said he would be moving to France with his daughter. Despite Rhona having no legal claim to Ivy in UK law because she didn’t give birth to her, all her instincts were telling her that Ivy was biologically hers.
Holed up in a holiday cottage with the baby she contacted her friend Vanessa Woodfield (Michelle Hardwick) for help, and Vanessa rushed over from Canada along with her son, Johnny (Jack Jennings).
Realising that Rhona was in an impossible situation, Vanessa contacted Mary (Louise Jameson), a move which sadly led to Gus bringing the police to the cottage just as Marlon (Mark Charnock) was persuading his wife to return to Emmerdale.
Rhona was arrested for kidnap, and in this episode she faced police questioning. She was shocked to hear that Gus was saying that she’d given him and his wife permission to use the frozen embryos and told the police this wasn’t the case. In fact she refused permission and Gus then stole her passport and used the embryos fraudulently.
After she told the police officer this, they agreed to question Gus. Rhona’s fear was that he would already have left the country with Ivy as he planned to go to France, but later she was told that he had been taken into custody.
Hugely relieved, Rhona assumed that she would be able to go home and look after Ivy. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. The police officer said that Ivy was in the care of social services.
‘She has a loving family and a home where she belongs,’ Rhona protested, saying that she wouldn’t allow them to put Ivy in care. ‘She’s my child!
Reminding her again that she had no parental rights over Ivy, the officer explained that they had to follow the law even though it was ‘an unusual situation.’ She said Rhona would be charged with the offence of kidnap.
Meanwhile, back at home, Marlon and Mary were facing questions from April (Amelia Flanagan), upset at what was happening with her mum. Leo (Harvey Rogerson) was also upset when he came home and Rhona wasn’t there.
Could Rhona be heading for prison?
