Belle recently went to the police station to confess that she’d struck estranged husband Tom with an axe, but stressed she’d acted in self-defence because he was trying to kill her.

Tom thought he’d convinced Belle to keep his secret, so he’d subsequently lied to police that he’d been attacked with an axe by two robbers.

In Wednesday’s (October 2) episode, Tom was forced to change his story when a detective confirmed Belle had reported him for abuse.

“It was her. She attacked me but I’d never hurt her, ever,” Tom desperately insisted.

The detective didn’t believe Tom and placed him under arrest for coercive and controlling behaviour as well as assault.

Tom was joined in the interrogation by his solicitor as he claimed he’d been trying to protect Belle. He also made up a litany of false allegations about Belle physically assaulting him during their marriage.

“It’s her, it’s all her,” Tom angrily told the police.

The detective knew that Tom had offered Belle a deal where he’d blame the attack on someone else if she promised never to report him for domestic abuse.

Tom turned things around by claiming Belle was the one who’d offered him a deal because she worried he’d tell the police the truth.

When he was confronted with the secret camera he’d installed in Dale Head, Tom said he’d only put it in the house to keep Belle safe.

Tom explained that all of his footage from the cameras self-deleted after 24 hours, only to find out that the police planned to seize his electronic devices as evidence.

Later, when meeting alone with his solicitor, Tom admitted that there was still some incriminating footage on his tablet.

The episode concluded with the soap flashing to Victoria Cottage, where Jimmy King’s son Carl had found the tablet — completely unaware that it contained vital hidden camera evidence.

With Tom now under arrest, the soap is now set to enter a “dark” and “different” phase of this long-running coercive control storyline, according to stars James Chase and Eden Taylor-Draper.