Emmerdale star Charlotte Bellamy has spoken about her character Laurel Thomas’s role in the soap’s new death storyline.

Laurel finds herself embroiled in Anthony Fox’s exit plot this week as she lashes out to protect her best friend Nicola King.

Monday’s episode, which is already streaming on ITVX, sees Anthony turn physically threatening with Nicola after she rightly accuses him of being a danger to children.

Laurel rushes in and defends Nicola by hitting Anthony over the head with a heavy ornament. Anthony recovers, but when he later goes missing in suspicious circumstances, Laurel and Nicola can’t help worrying that the two incidents may be connected.

Speaking about the storyline, Charlotte explained: “Laurel walks in on Anthony attacking Nicola so she hits him over the head. Nicola tells Laurel he is a sexual predator.

“Laurel can’t believe this revelation and is in shock about this, as he seemed genuinely a nice honest man.

“Afterwards, Laurel is behaving suspiciously with Nicola because they have hit Anthony and he is walking around with a bloody head injury.”

While Anthony’s exit has been billed as a murder mystery, with seven potential culprits in the frame, Charlotte appeared to rule out the possibility of Laurel finishing off the job by killing Anthony.

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sed his daughter Ruby when she was a teenager.

She said: “Laurel is a good honest person but fiercely loyal. I don’t think she ever is capable of real harm.”

Asked how she’d feel if Laurel was revealed as the culprit, Charlotte admitted: “I would not believe it!”

Laurel, Nicola, Ruby, Caleb, Chas, Cain and Aaron have all been named as suspects in the Anthony mystery.

Anthony’s final scenes air this week as he’s found dead by someone following the disturbing revelations that he sexually abused his daughter Ruby when she was a teenager.