EMMERDALE viewers were in tears tonight as it was revealed Charity Dingle has a secret son.
It comes after it was reported last year that Charity's secret son would be making an appearance to the Dales.
Charity gave birth to her son after being raped as a teenager and was forced to give him up after her ordeal, but now he's going to track his mother down and arrive in the village.
Earlier this week, viewers were in tears as Charity revealed she was raped, beaten and kept prisoner by a policeman at the age of 14.
It's thought she gave the baby up when he was just days old, as she couldn’t face keeping him under the grim circumstances in which he was conceived.
Tonight's episode saw Vanessa try and convince Charity to tell the police what happened to her but she refused.
She then chatted up a man in the pub to get on Vanessa's nerves.
Charity got upset and when he followed her into the kitchen and she furiously kicked him screaming that she wished every man "would be wiped off the face of the earth".
She then pretended he was waiting upstairs for her to Vanessa before she tearfully opened the box of baby clothes in her room alone.
Viewers took to Twitter to express their heartbreak for Charity with one writing: "I feel so sorry for Charity #Emmerdale".
Another said: "I absolutely adore Charity and its amazing that after all these years in the show they're giving her a storyline that delves into her past and shows her vulnerability ❤ #Emmerdale".
A third added: "Thought I prepared myself months ago about Charity's secret son but wow that just hit me, my emotions are through the floor omg #emmerdale".
In Monday's episode, she tearfully told partner Vanessa the truth about her past after seeing the police officer DI Mark Bails on TV talking about the Phil Webb case.
In the powerful scenes, Charity recalled how the seemingly kind DI Bails had offered her a place to live when she was on the streets working as a prostitute.
She told Vanessa: 'But I thought I was lucky because there was heating a fridge and a telly."
But the first night she stayed at his flat, he raped her.
She said: "He stopped letting me out and took my keys away."
She managed to escape one night to call the police after he hit her.
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She said: "Last time he hit me something just clicked - no more - so I drove his own police car to the station and told them he beat me up.
Sadly for Charity, "nothing stuck" after the police investigation and Bails got away with a suspension.
She recalled: "It turns out they don't take you that seriously when you're a police car stealing teenage prostitute."
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