EMMERDALE has been hit with a raft of Ofcom complaints over April Windsor being sold for sex.

The ITV soap aired the harrowing scenes of April, 16, being manipulated into going to a hotel room with a businessman to deliver drugs.

However it soon emerged that April wasn’t simply expected to deliver the drugs, but ‘entertain’ the man in the room.

As it dawned on her what he wanted, April kept him at bay before seizing her chance to flee.

But when she got back to the village, terrified of the consequences she did all she could to avoid Ray.

Instead she came face to face with the gang’s big boss Celia – and she had no intention of letting April escape her grasp.

“I bet when you first met Ray you never imagined you’d be able to handle him the way you do now,” she said.

“It’ll be the same for our customers. Tim’s a pussycat compared to some others.

‘If you’d have fluffed up his ego and made him feel important, you’d still be sitting here now just with a big chunk of your debt paid off.”

April told her: “I won’t do what he was asking.”

But Celia said: “Except you have no choice. And it’s quick and easy money.

“There’s no shame in that, is there?

Celia made sure April realised she had no choice, and then separated her from Dylan and her support network so she would be easier to control.

The harrowing scenes will continue for April in the coming weeks and months as she falls more and more into Celia’s trap with no way to escape.

The episode has 62 complaints to Ofcom with the regulator assessing them.