Emmerdale actress Natalie J Robb recently described Moira Dingle’s upcoming storylines as a bit of a ‘rocky time ahead’ and never has a bigger understatement been said.
Her last few years could be described as ‘rocky’; with her brain tumour that nearly killed her, almost losing the farm to debt, again almost losing the farm to the slurry spill caused by psycho John. But this is a whole different ballgame, and Moira won’t know what’s hit her.
Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths), the resident drug lord and human trafficker of the village, charmed her way into Moira’s life with business propositions and the offer of friendship.
Their relationship has had its ups and downs, but until recently, Celia’s secret hold over Moira had held fast – and she’s always had plans to use Moira as her trump card when the time came.
Celia laid the groundwork for this when poor Anya, one of her enslaved farm workers, died, by burying the young mum on Moira’s land wrapped in Moira’s DNA-ladened blanket. Moira unwittingly became Celia’s literal get out of jail free card.
Unaware of the full extent of Celia’s depravity, Moira did wake up to something being amiss with their turkey deal when she discovered Celia had been forging her signature on invoices.
She confronted Celia, who drew on her expert gaslighting powers to turn it all on Moira, blaming the possible resurgence of her brain tumour for a mistake. Moira responded with a big old slap.
But it was all too little too late, as Celia’s wheels were already in motion. And her death at the hands of son Ray will only make the wheels spin faster.
Before Celia’s ticking time bomb explodes, Moira was dealt another cruel hand when she learned that now her husband Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) is the one battling a brain tumour, which was discovered during the huge Corriedale episode. As they try to process this horrendous turn of events, the timebomb explodes.
In the fallout from the Corriedale episode and the aftermath of Ray and Celia’s deaths, the quiet ambience of the village is once again disrupted as police descend on Butler’s Farm with DC Stewart leading the charge to interview all farm workers.
Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley) and Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins) are pulled in for interviewing and do their best to speak well of Moira’s character, but it’s not enough.
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Moira arrives back from the hospital with Cain to find the house awash with police presence and is immediately approached by DS Walsh who wastes no time in pulling her in for an interview. She is heavily questioned about her relationship with Celia, but she has no idea how bad things are about to get.
The police head over to Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) for the next round of questioning, and he paints a damning image of Moira. As Moira’s fate worsens, she and Cain are interrupted by the police returning with a search warrant. Things just got really, really serious.
Moira, however, thinks she has nothing to hide and is only too happy to let them search. But her boldness and ignorance backfires when the police slap handcuffs on her and arrest her on the suspicion of human trafficking. They are just a stones throw from discovering the freshly dug graves on her land.
Moira is aghast at the accusation and her only hope now is for Caleb Miligan (Will Ash) to get the best solicitor possible, but they’ll have to be some kind of miracle worker to overturn this. Is Moira heading for a life behind bars for Celia’s crimes?
