prison

Emmerdale actor Dominic Brunt has addressed his character Paddy Dingle’s turmoil, as he covers up his father Bear Wolf’s killer crime after he murdered Ray Walters

Emmerdale fans are used to seeing Paddy Dingle at the centre of comedic mishaps and the more heartfelt moments, but his latest plot sees him covering up a brutal murder.

For the first time in his 29 years on the soap, Paddy, played by actor Dominic Brunt, could face prison as the truth unravels. A recent flashback episode saw Paddy’s father Bear Wolf [Joshua Richards] confirmed as villain Ray Walters’ killer, with Paddy now determined to stop anyone from finding out.

Next week, Paddy realises his dad needs professional help as Bear continues to spiral. With teenager Dylan Penders, also covering up the crime, feeling the strain and ready to crack, Paddy’s left picking up the pieces to prevent the police from learning what really happened to Ray. Dominic, 55, is delighted about the killer twist though, as he teases his future in the village.

He says: “It’s such a good story. Paddy’s juggling everything at the moment, trying to keep everybody out of being done for murder and keeping the story straight. But it keeps unravelling and he keeps pulling all the strings back in, going: ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to stick to the story’.”

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While it could lead to an exit for Bear if his crime is discovered, Dominic says Paddy isn’t worried about his own fate. He explains: “He fears that his dad will go away again. He thought he was dead and he’s back. And now Bear might go down for murder. Paddy is trying to save his dad, and save the fact that Dylan would be implicated in it as well, because we all hid the body.”

Bear vanished from the village in July last year, claiming he was visiting a friend in Ireland as he secretly battled depression. By the time Paddy realised his father was missing, Bear had already been manipulated by villain Ray and his evil mum Celia Daniels, in the soap’s heartbreaking modern slavery storyline.

Bear was kept at their farm for months until he fled at the end of December, while viewers, and village residents, were led to believe Celia had killed him. His sudden return earlier this month saw him accidentally killing Ray to save his son, and Dominic says Paddy will go to any lengths necessary to protect him in return.

He tells us: “Bear’s not ready to go to the police. He keeps going: ‘Should I go to the police? Should I just come clean? Should I tell them the truth?’ His dad is all over the place, he’s very sick, withdrawing from whatever drugs he was given and he’s completely unstable.

“So Paddy is trying to hide him away for now and then maybe in the near future they’ll just say to the police: ‘Alright, there he is, come and get him, we did it’. But at the moment he’s just trying to save his dad from more psychological pain after what he’s just been through with Ray and Celia.”

Dominic did reveal that other characters will soon uncover the truth, including his best friend Marlon Dingle, played by Mark Charnock. Marlon has also been caught up in Ray and Celia’s dark world after they exploited his teenage daughter April Windsor [Amelia Flanagan] into selling drugs, alongside her boyfriend Dylan.

When Marlon vowed to go to the police he was ignored, leading to sinister threats and payment demands by Ray. Dominic says the close friends will open up to each other about what they’ve been hiding, while Paddy is also set to confide in his wife Mandy Dingle [Lisa Riley].

Dominic says: “He definitely confides in Mandy. I think there’s an episode coming up with me and Mark, just a two-hander, where we spill the beans to each other and we become bonded again, which is lovely because they’ve got a three-decade-long friendship.”

Paddy has been at the heart of some huge storylines since his debut in 1997, including his five weddings, and the devastating loss of his baby daughter Grace after she was diagnosed with Bilateral Renal Agenesis, a rare life-limiting congenital condition.

Paddy also suffered depression and suicidal thoughts in a wideley-praised storyline in 2023, with Dominic keen to revisit Paddy’s mental health as he struggles through his latest turmoil. While the future looks bleak for Bear, Dominic says Paddy is confident that the father and son, and Dylan, will find a way to make it through their traumatic start to the new year.

He shares: “I think he truly believes that they’ll get through this, it’ll go away and nobody will be blamed and it’ll just become a village secret. But soaps being soaps, there’s got to be a moral outcome. His worst fear is that it all unravels and of course I think it does.”

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Rodriguez calls for healing ‘wounds left by political confrontation’ while announcing notorious El Helicoide prison to shut down.

Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez has announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, her latest major reform since the US military abducted the country’s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife earlier this month.

“We have decided to push ahead with a general amnesty law that covers the whole period of political violence from 1999 to the present day,” Rodriguez said on Friday.

Speaking at a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military officials and other government leaders, the acting president said the National Assembly would take up the amnesty bill with urgency.

“May this law serve to heal the wounds left by the political confrontation fuelled by violence and extremism,” Rodriguez said in the prerecorded televised event.

“May it serve to redirect justice in our country, and may it serve to redirect coexistence among Venezuelans,” she said.

Rodriguez also announced the shutdown of El Helicoide, a notorious secret service prison in Caracas, where torture and other human rights abuses have been documented by independent organisations.

El Helicoide, she said, will be transformed into a sports, social and cultural centre for the surrounding neighbourhoods.

Rodriguez made her announcement before officials whom former prisoners and human rights watchdogs have accused of overseeing El Helicoide and other detention facilities.

The Venezuelan-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal estimates that 711 people are in detention in facilities across Venezuela over their political activities. Of those, 183 have been sentenced, the group said.

Foro Penal President Alfredo Romero welcomed the planned amnesty but said it must apply to all prisoners “without discrimination”.

“A general amnesty is welcome as long as its elements and conditions include all of civil society, without discrimination, that it does not become a cloak of impunity, and that it contributes to dismantling the repressive apparatus of political persecution,” Romero wrote in a post on social media.

Foro Penal has calculated that some 302 prisoners have been released by Rodriguez’s government in the aftermath of the abduction of Maduro by the US.

The organisation later released a video clip on social media of what is said showed the moment that human rights worker Eduardo Torres was released from prison on Friday night, following his detention since May 2025.

Translation: Our colleague from @proveaong Eduardo Torres has been released from prison, human rights defender, former political prisoner.

Families and rights advocates have long demanded that charges and convictions against detainees who are considered political prisoners be dropped.

Government officials – who ⁠deny holding political prisoners and say those jailed have committed crimes – report that more than 600 people have been released from prison, but they have not been clear on the timeline and appear to be including prisoners released in previous years.

A court sentenced former first lady Kim Keon Hee to one year and eight months in prison Wednesday after finding her guilty of accepting luxury bribes from the Unification Church that had sought business favors.

Special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team had sought a 15-year prison term for Kim, the wife of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who stands trial on an insurrection charge related to his martial law bid in 2024.

But the Seoul Central District Court handed down the far shorter prison term for Kim, acquitting her of charges of involvement in a stock manipulation scheme and violating the Political Funds Act.

The court also ordered Kim to forfeit 12.8 million won (US$8,988). With Wednesday’s ruling, Kim and her husband have become the country’s first presidential couple to be imprisoned with criminal convictions.

The court said it found Kim guilty of receiving luxury goods, such as a Chanel bag and a high-end Graff necklace, from the Unification Church, which had sought business favors from her.

“The defendant misused her position as a means to seek profit,” the court said. “(She) failed to reject high-end luxury goods shared in connection with the Unification Church’s requests and focused on her own adornment.”

Kim had been charged with conspiring with a former head of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea, as well as a close associate, to manipulate the company’s stock price and make 810 million won in illegal profits between 2010 and 2012.

She was also indicted for violating the Political Funds Act for allegedly receiving free opinion polls worth 270 million won, together with her husband, from a self-proclaimed power broker ahead of the 2022 presidential election.

The former first lady was additionally charged with conspiring with a shaman to receive luxury gifts worth 80 million won from a Unification Church official in 2022, along with requests for business favors.

Kim, who has been held in custody since August, had denied all of the charges.

Yoon has been sentenced to five years in prison on charges stemming from his martial law bid in 2024. He is also standing trial on more charges, including leading an insurrection through his martial law decree.

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