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Emmerdale viewers blast Marlon after he rants at broken Rhona

Oh Mr Dingle, you just undid <years> of soap nice guy work

Emmerdale fans lost it on social media last night after soap’s Mr Nice Guy Marlon Dingle turned on the mother of his child Rhona Goskirk, despite her recent rape ordeal.

Clueless about Rhona’s terrifying assault at the hands of her husband Pierce Harris, Marlon was furious when he went to visit her with their son Leo and saw her taking painkillers – which she had previously been addicted to.

Viewers winced when he shouted: “I knew you’d been stupid, but not that stupid!”

He then assumed it was Rhona rather than Pierce who that had caused their marriage to end, adding: “What? You play away and then you raid the medicine cabinet! And you wonder why your husband left you?”

Marlon didn’t know that Rhona had been sexually assaulted on her wedding night but to viewers on Twitter, that was no excuse for his uncharacteristic outburst.

@XxJacqui24xX posted, saying ‘First time I’ve ever said this but….. HATING Marlon right now!!! #emmerdale #poorrhona’

And @Aaronfan1231 wrote: ‘I know Marlon doesn’t know the truth about Rhona but still no need to fly off the handle #emmerdale’

@DannyMFansite widened out his criticism to all of the Yorkshiremen of the Dales, when he said: ‘Why are the men on #Emmerdale taking it in turns to be complete morons lately tonight it’s Marlon’s turn #Emmerdale’

Earlier Rhona had confided in her best friend Vanessa Woodfield that Pierce had raped her.

She had then moved out of the home she shared with the lawyer and into Vanessa’s house – but still refused to report the rape to police.

The ITV soap was criticised by some quarters for showing such a harrowing storyline before the watershed but Emmerdale boss Iain MacLeod stood by their decision.

He told metro.co.uk: “It was a nerve-wracking thing to broadcast because it’s obviously very dark, uncomfortable territory. But the reaction to it has been, on the whole, positive and we’ve had direct communication from people who have said this echoes closely with their own experiences – they were quite moved and pleased we had covered that subject area.”

Just not very happy with mean old Marlon’s reaction to it.