Charley Webb fears her ‘Emmerdale’ character will be left "broken" if she has to go to prison.
Debbie Dingle is facing a stressful pre-Christmas period as she awaits a court appearance to find out if she will be banged up for her part in an acid attack which left her ex Ross Barton (Mike Parr) scarred for life – and the 30-year-old star believes her alter-ego may never recover if she is sent to jail.
She said: "I think prison would break her. Debbie is strong but the last few years have dealt her some tough cards, from being with Cameron the killer, getting double crossed by Joe, and coping with Sarah’s cancer and heart transplant throughout. It has all been so much pressure.
"So the outlook is that Christmas is not going to be too cheery at the moment for her."
Despite Debbie’s family trying their best to be optimistic for her, she cannot help but feel "really anxious" about her court appearance, and fears the judge will make an example of her.
She is quoted by Radio Times as saying: "Debbie is really apprehensive about the court date.
"She just wants an end to this whole thing. The night of the acid attack has haunted her since it happened and she wants to move on, but she is really anxious.
"Debbie is very prepared for the fact the judge might make an example of her, so she is worried about that."
The acid attack occurred when Debbie asked dodgy Simon McManus (Liam Ainsworth) to "hurt" Joe Tate (Ned Porteous), but didn’t stipulate the use of acid.
However, simple Simon attacked Ross with the horrific substance in a case of mistaken identity.
Charley recently said: "That story has been a bit muddled and confused, she never ordered the acid, the acid was just something that that guy did even though she did just want Joe to get beaten up for what he’d done.
"That’s a very Dingle thing to do – the Dingles get people beaten up all the time and her dad is Cain, it’s natural territory for her for that to happen.
"But obviously it did go really wrong with the acid."
Emmerdale’s Charley Webb: Debbie will ‘break’ in prison
