Ross Marshall (Alex Walkinshaw) has revealed the disturbing reason his family were forced to flee Australia in EastEnders.
The truth is out about his son Joel’s (Max Murray) troubled ways.
As viewers of the BBC One know, the father and son, alongside Ross’ partner Vicki Fowler (Alice Haig), arrived into Albert Square to attend Martin Fowler’s funeral.
She was also on the lookout for some cash – believing that Ross had amassed $50,000 worth of debt during his divorce, and now owed the money to loan sharks.
It later transpired that Joel was the one responsible for the cash issues, but until today’s episode, we weren’t entirely sure why.
In the meantime, he’s struck up a friendship with Tommy Moon (Sonny Kendall) and introduced the vulnerable local to pornography.
He even made comments about wanting to reenact the videos with Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James), who he later slept with.
Ross and Vicki were surprised to catch the two in the act, though she couldn’t understand why her boyfriend took such a hard stance on Joel – believing his behaviour to be atypical of any other teenager.
Later, Joel left his phone unoccupied on the dining table, and Ross couldn’t help but spy through it.
To his horror, he found a video of him sleeping with Avani – and it didn’t seem like she had any knowledge of it being filmed.
Seeing red, an enraged Ross charged towards lying Joel, who insisted that his sexual partner was full aware that the camera was rolling.
He tried to reassure his dad that nobody had been sent the clip, and that he’d deleted it – but little does Ross know, he’s likely passed it onto Tommy.
During their dinner, Vicki noticed how awkward things were between the two and demanded answers.
Ross stormed off to the kitchen, where he explained that he’d told a number of lies to try and protect Joel.
There was never any threat from loan sharks – but someone had told them to move country.
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He admitted that while they lived in Sydney, Joel took a picture up a girls from his school’s skirt and then shared it online. Ross feared that the pupil’s parents would go to the police, and he coughed up the 50k to pay them off.
When Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) loaned him the cash, he was told that he had no future Down Under and they’d have to start afresh in the UK – or Joel would be reported.
A furious Vicki laid down the law with Joel, telling him that now he’s under her roof, he’ll do what she says.
To make matters worse for him, she’s de
