Emmerdale Emma and Arthur bullying storyline receives complaints

Emmerdale fans are getting more than a little bit fed up with Emma Barton and her reign over the village.

As far as pretty much everyone is concerned, it’s about time she was caught out and locked up for all her crimes, which include killing her husband James Barton by pushing him off a motorway bride, and manipulating a sick Ashley Thomas into remembering what he saw differently thanks to his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

The latest in her attempts to cover her tracks has seen her taking on the rest of the Thomas family who are onto her scheming and lying.

Emma is trying to make sure Arthur and Laurel don’t expose her (Credit: ITV)

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While at the moment it’s Laurel she’s focusing on as the vicar’s widow has accused her outright of murdering James, last month it was young Arthur who bore the brunt of Emma’s nasty ways.

When Arthur watched the video of her manipulating Ashley, the youngster confronted the nutty nurse and told her she wasn’t very nice as she made people cry.

Realising what he’d seen, Emma went all out to cover herself as she desperately tried to stop him spilling the beans to anyone else.

She lied to him that his mum Laurel was seriously ill, as well as destroying his treasured videos of his late dad.

Emma’s treatment of Arthur got fans worked up (Credit: ITV)

After everything else she’d done, the bullying of a nine-year-old boy was a step too far as far as viewers were concerned and some of them even felt it necessary to complain to regulating body Ofcom.

In its latest broadcast bulletin, out today, Ofcom revealed that it had 10 complaints from viewers who were uncomfortable at the way Emmerdale showed the “bullying of a young child”.

It’s not exactly a record number of complaints, and it seemed Ofcom agreed as they decided not to launch an official investigation.

A spokesperson told Digital Spy: “We assessed a small number of complaints about a bullying story in Emmerdale. We found the content was limited, and the perpetrator was not presenting in a positive light.

“We also recognise that audiences expect soaps to present difficult or challenging social situations.”

Laurel gives into Emma, but Ross overhears and starts to get suspicious of his mum (Credit: ITV)

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With the storyline having moved on to focus on Laurel’s quest to bring Emma down, tonight will see Laurel give in and promise to leave Emma alone.

But when Ross overhears their conversation and listens to something particularly incriminating, will he realise Laurel’s been telling the truth about his murderous mum all along?