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ITV's long-running soap Emmerdale was hit with hundreds of complaints from viewers after the brutal scenes of Vinny Dingle's (played by Bradley Johnson) attack aired last week. During Tueday's (August 12) episode, the character was led astray and faced a heartbreaking homophobic attack at the hands of Mike, whom he confided in about being confused about his sexuality. After meeting his online friend for the first time, Vinny before being blackmailed for £10,000 after Mike secretly recorded the conversation and threatened to tell his fiancée, Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham), who is none the wiser.

The distressing scenes left viewers horrified, and 279 contacted Ofcom with their concerns about the episode, which started at 7:30 pm before the watershed. Ofcom have said the "complaints objected to violent and sexual content before the watershed." This came as things took a sinister turn for Vinny when Mike turned up at his home, claiming his girlfriend had chucked him out. Mike then turned nasty and began hurling abuse at Vinny over his confusion about his sexuality before getting physical. After being repeatedly punched and kicked, Vinny was left cowering on the floor in agony.

As well as taking to the communications regulator, other fans expressed their discomfort on social media and revealed they were heartbroken by the episode.

One wrote: "Appalling, disgusting storyline. Why don't you just get Tarantino or Guy Ritchie to direct? Vinny was a lovely character." As another echoed: "No need for such violence".

An Emmerdale fan admitted: "I've fired off a complaint to Ofcom- disgusted with how what used to be a family show has morphed into something that seems to be trying to show as much violence and depravity as it can squeeze into each programme. 7.30 is far too early to show this sort of muck."

"This storyline is disgusting, Vinny reaches out to a support group and gets a homophobe and blackmailer, what sort of message is that sending to anyone questioning their own sexuality and wanting to seek out help," said a fourth, who slammed the storyline as a whole.

In another heartbreaking blow, Mike forced Vinny to transfer £10,000 to his bank account after he secretly recorded him confessing to being confused about his sexuality.

As a result, Vinny obliged with the viscous demand even though the money was intended to fund his and Gabby's wedding rings and their romantic getaway.

Following the episodes, some fans made a devastating prediction about the character's future in the wake of the attack and suggested that Vinny could become like his abusive dad, Paul Ashdale (Reese Dinsdale).

This comes as the following episode saw him take out his pent-up anger on his friend Kammy Hadiq (Shebz Miah), who innocently teased him about following bride-to-be Gabby's orders and jokingly told him to "man up."

Vinny snapped at him and attempted to attack his friend before twisting the truth to Gabby, who saw the fight and separated the pair.