Emmerdale's Rhona Goskirk star teases major trial surprise as Gus Malcoms is sentenced

Emmerdale's Rhona Goskirk (played by Zoe Henry) and husband Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) appear to finally have reached a resolution to their custody battle over baby Ivy as Gus Malcoms (Alan McKenna) is set to be sentenced for fraudulently using Rhona's frozen embryos without her permission. Rhona was acquitted in her kidnapping trial last week and with some sort of a custodial sentence almost a certainty for Gus when he returns to court tonight (April 24) she is looking forward to having her daughter to herself.

However, the pair have reached a degree of civility and he has assured her that she and her family will still be part of Ivy’s life if he gets a lighter sentence. While Marlon is skeptical, Rhona seems to believe him despite his behaviour at her trial. Prior to his sentencing, she hands Ivy over to Gus and they agree to put the child first from now on. Gus is hopeful that her statement will help him get a lesser sentence meaning he will soon be reunited with his daughter.

However, as the day of the trial dawns, Rhona's apprehension is obvious and his fate completely hangs in her hands. Actress Zoe Henry exclusively spoke to Express.co.uk ahead of the episode and teased that it won't run as smoothly as anyone would like.

"Rhona does something that I'm like, 'Hang on a minute'," Zoe confessed. "What she does in court, is that premeditated? Because that changes everything. What she does, is tell the truth and it just takes her by surprise, which is kind of what happens in that moment.

"I'm not saying he's only got himself to blame, but he (Gus) kind of orchestrated this himself really. What I will say...is basically I think Rhona just goes with what she feels in her heart is right and truthful. That's the nub of everything for her. What is the truth in all of this?"

"I think truth be told, Rhona would love Gus, in a magical fairytale way, to just disappear, and [she'd] have that baby and just be a happy family unit all together. But she also knows that's not particularly fair," she said.

This is just the latest complex legal case that has come about because of the unconventional parentage of Ivy, and Zoe admits she didn't realise how complex this was.

"There's nothing straightforward about it and I hadn't realised the legalities of that. Of how it is Rhona's embryo or Rhona's egg that helps to create the embryo but she has no legal rights," the actress went on.

"It's complex and...I think actually, that's probably the root of it is that...nobody's right and nobody's wrong and we should start with the embryos of course, but at the end of the day, they are both still parents."

Despite working on this storyline for some time now Zoe said she had no idea where it was going.

"I think I thought perhaps we'd work out a way to co-parent and that might bring Alan (Who plays Gus) into the show or whatever. But no, we had absolutely no idea (what would happen).

"And I'm not sure they (the writers) did when they started, because...this has never been done before. There are so many legal loopholes or ways you could go with this but they've had to tell it truthfully. It's been fascinating, really."

While Zoe can't reveal Gus' fate she did confess that personally, she hopes he gets a lenient ruling so she can continue to work with Alan.

"We'd quite like it to be a short sentence because we'd love Alan. We'd happily have him living in the village," she laughed.

Emmerdale is on ITV weekdays at 7.30pm.