Emmerdale's Victoria Sugden is set to be raped during a horrific night out for several villagers.
Isabel Hodgins
The Dales favourite - played by Isabel Hodgins - is to be sexually assaulted during a dark evening out, which will also see teacher Maya Stepney's (Louisa Clein) grooming of pupil Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant) exposed.
A TV source said: "They've got a gritty storyline around a big night out where loads of the ladies go clubbing.
"Paedo Maya will finally be outed. But the bombshell is Victoria will get raped in a horror twist that will send her down a dark path."
If that wasn't enough, another villager will stabbed on the night of terror.
The source added to The Sun newspaper's Bizarre TV column: "The night also sees a stabbing. There will be blood and violence to grip the Dales as they go dark to compete with their soap rivals."
'Emmerdale' producer Kate Brooks previously teased the horror night out, but insisted it will be told "in a different way" to how others may portray such scenes.
She said: "There's a lot of drama involved ... because we're 'Emmerdale', we're telling it in a different way."
Victoria's love interest Ellis Chapman (Asan N'Jie) and Maya's unsuspecting partner David Metcalfe (Matthew Wolfenden) - who is Jacob's father - will also be on the night out.
Maya's grooming of Jacob has been rumbling on for weeks, and Louisa recently admitted it has been "difficult" filming her kissing scenes with 16-year-old Joe-Warren.
She said: "It is difficult, but Joe-Warren Plant is a joy to work with and he's so mature for his age. He's been on the show for such a long time and has been working with adults since he was eight years old, so he's very happy around adults. You wouldn't necessarily pin him as 16 when you met him.
"Of course it's awkward, but the scriptwriters are very sensitive to that, as are the directors and producers. We're all very conscious of not making it (the scenes) sexually titillating. Any form of intimacy doesn't need to be sexy. It's about the implied emotional intimacy, which is the creepy bit in a way.
"It's got to be that way. And Barnardo's were very happy when we told them the way we were going to play the story through."
Tagged in Matthew Wolfenden