After suffering a year long suspension from the ITV soap opera Emmerdale, Ben Freeman has finally been sacked.

Ben, better known as ladies man Scott Windsor, was suspended last year after he was accused of raping a sixteen year old girl in Barbados. He will stand trial for the crime later this year but even if his name is cleared, it will be too late for Ben’s Emmerdale career.

An ITV spokesman told the News of the World: “We cannot be sure of Ben’s availability for work, so we cannot renew his contract. It is due to the uncertainty of the process of law and the lead times in writing a character in and out of a soap.”