Emmerdale spoilers: Nicola King shocks with low blow in an attempt to save Angel from prison

Angelica King (Rebecca Bakes) recently confessed in Emmerdale that she was the one driving the car when Heath Hope (Sebastian Dowling) died. Prior to that, the blame had been on Heath’s sister Cathy (Gabrielle Dowling)’s shoulders, as she was the one who’d been seen driving the car away from the village.

Angel’s admission was a massive shock to her parents, Jimmy and Nicola (Nick Miles and Nicola Wheeler), who immediately went into protective mode.

Jimmy tried to get Angel to lie to the police and stick to the story that Cathy had been the one driving, but Angel couldn’t keep up the pretence.

In upcoming episodes Nicola is devastated when she hears from Ethan (Emile John) that it’s very likely that Angel will get a custodial sentence.

Nicola is getting seriously desperate

She urges Jimmy not to tell Angel that she could be facing prison, but Jimmy wonders whether they would be better to prepare their daughter for that outcome.

Increasingly distraught, Nicola again thinks about ways they could lie their way out of the situation, but there seems to be no way out.

One small ray of hope is if they can show that it was just a moment of madness that made Angelica take the wheel, and other than that she’s a person of good character.

A character reference from the local vicar would certainly help with that, but when Charles (Kevin Mathurin) says he’s not prepared to give a character reference for the girl, Nicola is shocked.

Of course it’s not the first time Nicola and Charles have clashed, and she’s quick to bring up the reason for that – Charles’s daughter Naomi (Karene Peter).

Naomi was part of a girl gang who beat Nicola up in a car park and left her for dead. Nicola endured many weeks of mental anguish and trauma after the attack, which was made worse by Naomi being around in the village at the time.

Although Naomi eventually helped to bring the rest of the gang to justice and Nicola and Charles appeared to have made friends again, it’s clear from Nicola’s behaviour that she might have forgiven but she certainly hasn’t forgotten Naomi.

And she’s willing to throw any dirt she can in Charles’s direction as she fears for her own daughter’s future.