Emmerdale spoilers: Aaron Dingle brands grieving Cathy Hope ‘tainted’ as he issues upsetting advice

Aaron arrived back in the village an angry and damaged individual. Cain (Jeff Hordley) had brought him back from Italy after hearing that his behaviour was out of control and he was either going to end up killing somebody or be killed himself.

All of this stems from Aaron’s grief over the death of his sister Liv (Isobel Steele), who was crushed by a caravan during a massive storm in 2022. Aaron blamed his mum Chas (Lucy Pargeter) for Liv’s death, as it was all wrapped up with Chas’s affair with Al Chapman (Michael Wildman).

Since his return he’s been absolutely horrible to everyone, including Liv’s husband Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson) who he bullied and tormented and physically attacked.

Cathy lost her brother at the start of the year

Chas has also borne the brunt of his anger, but hardly anyone is safe from Aaron’s all-round nastiness – apart from little sister Eve (Bella James). With her, he reveals that underneath all the fury there’s still a caring and sweet person. He’s not entirely a lost cause.

Not that you would have known it watching Monday (January 15)’s episode, in which he tried – and failed – to get Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb) to continue stealing cars with him. Moira (Natalie J. Robb) had warned Mack to stay away from Aaron and not to make enemies of his family, and this hit home to Mack.

Without his partner in crime, Aaron was left feeling a bit lost and went to the Hide to get drunk. He took the opportunity to be horrible to Cain while he was there, trying to goad him into a fight.

When that didn’t work, Aaron stomped outside. Ethan (Emile John) followed him and Aaron apologised to him for being horrible to him previously and tried to kiss him. Ethan pushed him away and left Aaron sitting angry and isolated, having turned everyone against him.

His conversation with Ethan was overheard by Cathy Hope (Gabrielle Dowling), who’d gone to the Hide to meet April (Amelia Flanagan) – something which took her a huge amount of effort because she told April earlier that she hates the fact that everyone stares at her, while on the school group chat everyone thinks she’s in jail already.

Cathy stole a car to go to a party with her brother Heath (Sebastian Dowling) and their friend Angelica King (Rebecca Bakes), but the car crashed on the road to Hotten and Heath was killed. Although Cathy insists that it was Angelica who was driving when the crash happened, only Brenda (Lesley Dunlop) believes her and most people think she’s to blame for her twin brother’s death.

As Cathy made her way to the Hide, Aaron stopped her. ‘It’s weird though, innit?’ he said. ‘Being the bad guy.’

Cathy replied that she wasn’t, but Aaron had some advice for her.

‘Just don’t kid yourself. You’re just like me, Cathy. You’re tainted. If you don’t expect that to change then you can’t be disappointed.’

Poor Cathy turned away and headed back home, fearing that Aaron could be right and she’ll never shake everyone’s opinion of her as ‘tainted.’

And Aaron continued to wallow in his own self-pity, having made someone else’s day just a little bit worse.