EMMERDALE viewers have slammed the show for ‘forgetting’ a key plot point amid an ongoing storyline.
Former Coronation Street actress Paula Lane joined the ITV soap at the beginning of this year, playing village newcomer Ella Forster.
After arriving in Emmerdale, Ella struck up a romance with local GP Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson) - with their relationship quickly becoming serious.
However, it all came to an abrupt end in recent scenes when Ella’s dark secret came to light, horrifying Liam.
In shocking scenes, it was revealed that as an 11-year-old, Ella (then known as Ruth) had killed her friend Joanne Phillips, who was the same age.
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When the pair first met, Ella had been wearing dirty clothes to school and had nothing to eat - so she was overwhelmed when Joanne befriended her.
After visiting Joanne's home, June became the mother figure that she never had - experiencing warmth, care, love and home-cooked meals for the first time.
Later, however, Joanne tried to end the friendship as other girls wouldn't socialise with her while being friends with Ella.
This left Ella panicking, knowing it would mean she wouldn’t be with June anymore.
A confrontation between the two escalated, with the girls scrapping while Ella explained that she lost it and slammed Joanne’s repeatedly head off the ground, only realising too late that she had gone too far.
Although June and the others gathered around were in hysterics, Ella calmly went home and waited for the police, as she went on to spend her teenage years and young adult life in prison.
Before viewers learned the truth, Ella had been visiting June (Tina Gray), who had dementia and was living in a care home.
Although Liam believed June was Ella’s mother, he learned at June’s funeral that the deceased woman's daughter was dead - while mourners blamed Ella for the tragedy.
Heartbroken, especially so as a bereaved parent himself, Liam later ordered Ella to leave the village, saying he hated her and never wanted to see her face again.
Eagle-eyed viewers have noted the soap hasn’t addressed that a similar situation happened in the village years earlier.
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A past storyline for Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) shares some similarities with Ella's background.
In 2014, Belle killed Gemma Andrews (Tendai Rinomhota), who had been her best friend.
The dramatic situation escalated from Gemma becoming jealous of Belle and Sean (Luke Roskell) growing closer.
This led to a tense argument, with Gemma slapping Belle and Belle pushing Gemma over.
In the fall, Gemma hit her head and began bleeding - although she didn’t die at that point.
Belle angrily stormed off but Gemma didn’t make it home as she collapsed and fell unconscious, being found a day later and rushed to hospital.
Although she went in for an operation, the young woman lost brain stem function meaning there was no way she would recover, leading to her life support being switched off.
Taking X, one fan wrote: “Belle also killed her best friend as a child but [Liam's] perfectly fine interacting with her.”
Another added: “I really don’t get how everyone’s just forgot Belle killed her friend as well in the Ella storyline? #Emmerdale.”
A third shared: “Does the village remember Belle killing her friend #emmerdale.”
As a fourth remarked: “Belle killed her friend when she was a teenager, and they're treating Ella like this?
"The state of this village of judgmental hypocrites #Emmerdale.”
