Emmerdale's Cain Dingle

Cain Dingle was a fictional character on the ITV soap opera Emmerdale. He was played by Jeff Hordley.

About Cain

Cain Dingle is the most loathed man in Emmerdale - even his family haven’t got a good word to say about him. Not that Cain cares. This modern day Heathcliff is violent, spiteful, vindictive and has made a career out of petty crime. He rises beyond the level of mere brutality and aggression by also being sly and cunning. For a man devoid of compassion, Cain has fallen in love an impressive number of times.

As a teenager, Cain had a fling with his cousin Charity who, at just 13, gave birth to their daughter Debbie. Without telling Cain he was a dad, Charity had her baby daughter adopted and tried to never give the tragic situation a second thought.

After arriving in Emmerdale in 2000 for the funeral of his cousin Butch Dingle, Cain took an immediate dislike to millionaire businessman Chris Tate (whom he blamed for the death of Butch) and policewoman Angie Reynolds and her family. Having spent months giving Angie’s smitten daughter Ollie reason to believe he fancies her, Cain revealed his true colours when he made a play for Angie.

Although she was horrified, Angie couldn't deny she felt a spark between them and after a year’s worth of flirting they started a passionate affair. After Angie came to her senses and ended the affair, Cain caused havoc on the family, sleeping with teenager Ollie, pushing grandfather Len down a flight of stairs and revealing his fling with Angie, thus causing her to lose her job in the police force. Meanwhile, with Charity in the village too, Cain had been causing trouble for his ex-love. On hearing that Charity is seeing Chris Tate, Cain hit her and an all out war was declared between the two.

In 2001 Cain was stunned to discover his uncle Zak is in fact his father because Cain's mother Faith had an affair with Zak. Cain had grown up thinking Zak's brother Shadrach was his dad. After a tense confrontation, Cain accepts the news and a uneasy bond is formed between the two men.

When Angie tried to get Cain out of her life by framing him for a crime, her plan went horribly wrong and a car crash tragically killed her. Cain was distraught as in her dying moments she refused to declare her love for him.

In 2003, young foster kid Debbie Jones arrives in Emmerdale and shows Cain a picture of her biological mother. The woman in the snap is Charity and Cain soon works out that he is Debbie’s dad.

Cain uses the information to extort money from Charity - threatening to tell her rich husband Chris all about Debbie. So when Chris welcomes Debbie into their lives after Charity tells him the truth herself, Cain is infuriated.

Despite his bad boy personality, Cain is deeply attached to Debbie and he and Charity constantly clash over her. When she begs her warring parents to take her away for a family trip, they agree. The result is the rekindling of their love for each other and they begin an affair behind Chris’ back.

However, Chris finds out and frames Charity for his murder. When she’s finally released from prison, Charity and Cain attempt to live together but its clear that she is used to the high life and doesn’t want to slum it with the Dingles.

The sparring between them continues until Cain helps ruin her wedding to wealthy pensioner Tom King by making it look like he’s still sleeping with her. When Charity leaves the village, Cain sets his sights on another.

He’s already worked alongside scheming Sadie King to split up Charity and Tom, so when she enlists his help again, Cain is intrigued. After being isolated from her family, Sadie finally falls into Cain’s arms and they spend the night together. But when she rejects him later, Cain shows his evil side by killing her dog.

Meanwhile, Debbie - who had a relationship with farmer Andy Sugden - has been hiding the fact she’s pregnant from her violent dad.

However, when Cain – and the rest of the Dingles – discovered that Debbie had given birth to baby Sarah Dingle, he was overjoyed. Feeling like this was finally a chance for him to redeem himself, Cain threw himself into caring for the baby and was absolutely smitten.

The problem was that Debbie wasn’t smitten at all. She felt unable to cope with Sarah and didn’t want to be a mum. With Cain pushing her to face up to her responsibilities, Debbie started to get even more desperate.

So when her close pal Emily Kirk decided to leave the village, Debbie begged her to take Sarah. When the family found out that Sarah was gone, they went mad.

Cain was especially furious and set off on the trail of his granddaughter. But every lead ended up to be a dead end and Cain returned to the village in a fury. Desperate to make Debbie pay for hurting them all so badly, Cain decided to make her life hell.

Cain has developed a long list of enemies such as his mother Faith, Andy Sugden, Emily Kirk, Scott Windsor, his daughter Debbie, vicar Ashley Thomas and Chris Tate.

Things got so bad that Debbie ended up moving out and in with local vicar Ashley Thomas and his niece Jasmine. The close bond between Debbie and Jasmine saw them embark on a romantic relationship and Cain was intent on destroying his daughter’s newfound stability.

Knowing that without Jasmine, Debbie had nothing, evil Cain set about to seduce Jasmine. He flattered her and took her virginity and then allowed Debbie to find them together. Debbie couldn’t believe her own father could be so evil and vowed to take her revenge on him. But Cain didn’t care, he’d hurt her back and settled the score.

Cain was responsible for sabotaging the King's show house after Sadie paid him. Sadie, however, refused to sleep with Cain and this infuriated him. Cain lied to Jimmy that he and Sadie were having an affair and they devised a plan to set her up, much like the way Sadie and Cain set up Charity. The sabotage of the show house resulted in certain gas pipes not being fixed properly due to pressure on Jimmy King to meet his deadline. After gas built up in a cupboard a spark resulted in the show house collapsing, which caused the deaths of Dawn Woods and Noreen Bell.

Cain was exiled from the Dingle household after the entire village found out he slept with his teenage daughter's girlfriend, simply to spite her. Sadie told Jasmine's uncle Ashley in revenge for Cain and Jimmy setting her up. On Father's Day Debbie vowed to get back at Cain no matter how long it took.

When Jasmine learned that she was pregnant after her affair with Cain she was distraught and was considering an abortion, but Cain wouldn't have it. With the advice from Debbie, who she went to for help which resulted in them renewing their friendship, Jasmine decided to have an abortion. When Sadie learned about this she provided Jasmine with enough money to do with as she pleased. On the day of the planned abortion Cain was frantically searching for Jasmine and Deebbie. When the two returned to the village Cain learned that Jasmine had had an abortion and he was crushed. Debbie couldn't resist pushing the knife, she had finally gotten back at her dad.

Cain redeemed himself with his family, even Debbie, when he confessed to the murder of his sister-in-law Alice to protect his half brother, Sam from a long spell in jail. He was bailed anonymously by Sadie, who had sent money to Wishing Well cottage, which Zak and Shadrach surrendered at the hearing in exchange for Cain's temporary freedom. Out on bail Cain plotted with Sadie to get rich at the Kings expense. Cain and Sadie plotted a kidnap of Tom King so they could get a large amount of money in ransom. Sadie realised that Tom wouldn't believe Cain cabable of murder so they planned to fake Sadie's death in order to make Tom co-operate.

With Sadie and Tom discussing the house collapse, Cain emerged from the woods with his shotgun and kidnapped the two. Police pursued him to a nearby quarry where Cain outwitted them by disguising himself as a police officer. After "shooting" Sadie, Cain forced Tom to phone Chastity to deliver the ransom.

It all ended with Cain flying away after leaving Sadie penniless at the airport.

Trivia

The book Cain used to show Jasmine Thomas he is not just a small minded thug, and eventually seduce her was The Dice Man by Luke Rhineheart.

Cain drove an old beat up BMW car to cover his tracks from the 520i with the registration VEC 564Y until he set fire to the police. Cain lamented that the car had never let him down.

Family

Zak Dingle - father
Faith Dingle - mother
Debbie Dingle - daughter
Sarah Dingle - granddaughter
Shadrach Dingle - uncle/stepfather (previously thought to be his father)
Lisa Dingle - stepmother
Chastity Dingle - half-sister (same mother)
Ben Dingle (deceased) - half-brother (same father)
Butch Dingle (deceased) - half-brother (same father)
Sam Dingle - half-brother (same father)
Tina Dingle - half-sister (same father)
Belle Dingle - half-sister (same father)
Charity Tate - first cousin once removed
Samson Dingle - nephew
Aaron Livesy - nephew

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Cain Dingle

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