When Matty Barton (Ash Palmisciano) ended up in prison for stabbing Samson Dingle (Sam Hall) in Emmerdale, the Dingle family were temporarily torn apart.
On one side there was Matty’s family – chiefly Moira (Natalie J. Robb) and Amy (Natalie Ann Jamieson), who knew that Matty wasn’t capable of committing any violent act and were terrified about what could happen to him in prison.
Matty’s step-father Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) also knew that Samson wasn’t telling the truth about what happened and tried to get Samson to admit he was lying. This set him against Sam (James Hooton) and the rest of the Dingles who initially rallied around Samson.
Even after Samson confessed and Matty was released, tensions were still high within the family. Matty had endured a nasty beating in prison – administered by his friendly cell-mate so he would be taken to hospital and would be safe from anything worse happening.
The mental trauma he’d been under was huge, with the constant fear of violence keeping him awake at night and making him sick with fear.
So Moira was not in a mood to forgive Samson after he came clean, particularly as he was still protecting Josh (Osian Morgan), who was the one who started all the trouble that led to the stabbing.
In Monday (August 5)’s episode, Samson finally got the courage to stand up to Josh. Cain has been giving Samson fighting lessons so that he can protect himself when he goes to prison, which he is almost certainly going to do. He confronted Josh and told him to admit his part in the incident, but when Josh refused and taunted him, Samson beat him up.
This was captured on Eric Pollard (Chris Chittell)’s CCTV, but someone else called it in to the police. From the happy smile on her face when Samson was arrested in the Woolpack, Cain decided it had to have been Moira.
Back at Butler’s, Cain asked his wife whether she called the police. She’d been in the area, and she had a grievance against Samson, after all. She countered that Cain was the one who taught Samson how to fight, so it was inevitable that Samson would use his new skills.
Cain said he was teaching Samson to protect himself, but Moira was angry that in her view he hadn’t put as much effort into protecting Matty. She accused him of letting Matty rot in prison because ‘Samson is family.’ And while Cain refused to get heavy-handed with Samson to get him to tell the truth, he didn’t think twice about teaching him how to be violent.
‘If anyone’s to blame for any of this it’s you, Cain,’ she said. Furious, he stood up and went to leave, but she hurled a glass at him which smashed on the door frame right by his head.
‘The whole family would be better off without you,’ she raged.
They’ve been through some ups and downs in recent weeks over Samson and Matty – but is this violent act the final straw for Moira and Cain’s marriage?
