Emmerdale star Ryan Hawley has addressed fears that his character Robert Sugden could be killed by his long-lost brother John.

Killer John has been secretly endangering the lives of villagers for months, all while Robert is back behind bars for breaking the terms of his bail and getting into a fight with John.

The sinister villain pays Robert a visit in prison to taunt him further over his relationship with Aaron Dingle and hints at the dangers he poses, leading fans of the ITV soap to believe John could turn his murderous tendencies towards his brother.

Hawley has opened up about the tense storyline, saying that should Robert find out the full depth of his crimes, he would want to expose John.

“I think obviously Robert would want to expose John to Aaron and to everyone, because he loves his family, and maybe he wouldn’t admit it.

“But he loves the village, and he loves his community, and he would want to protect that and, yeah, going forward, I think he does try to try to reveal John for who he is,” he said.

On whether fans should be concerned for Robert’s safety, he continued: “Who knows? There’s a lot of motive for John to get rid of Robert. He’s a huge inconvenience. He’s an obstacle in his relationship with Aaron. He’s more than an obstacle, I guess.

“But there’s also the dichotomy of as much as he hates him, he is still family. What does that say about John? What are his morals, and who is he as a character? Would he go that far that he’d kill his own family? We have to wait and see!”

Hawley admitted that he would like Robert to be the character who brings him down and “exposes him for who he is”.

“Because everyone seems to hate Robert at the moment,” he added. “Everyone hates Robert at the moment.

“We, the audience, know that Robert is trying to do the right thing by stopping Aaron from being with this murderer and that he’s not the right person for Aaron, and so, yeah, I would want him to, but maybe that’s not to be.”