Who is Emmerdale's Kirin Kotecha, Vanessa's baby father?
Last seen heading for South America after running over Tess Harris
Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) is desperate to adopt partner Vanessa Woodfield's (Michelle Hardwick) son Johnny so she gets custody of him in the event of her death, but needs permission from the kid's fugitive father Kirin Kotecha (Adam Fielding).
He's currently on the run, supposedly lying low in South America, but Charity and granddaughter Sarah Dingle (Katie Hill) reckon his ex-stepmum Priya Kotecha (Fiona Wade) knows more than she's letting on with regard to his whereabouts. Need a reminder of Kirin the character, and when he was he in Emmerdale? Course you do.
Vivacious Vet 'Ness had a one-night stand with the then 17 year-old in 2014 before he arrived in Emmerdale village as the hot-headed son of dodgy businessman and convicted arsonist Rakesh Kotecha (Pasha Bocarie).
They got together again after Kirin engineered a bogus trip to the vets and were then on/off as the 21 year age gap and Rakesh's disapproval of their relationship weighed heavily. When Vanessa became pregnant with Johnny the father could either have been Kirin or Adam Barton (Adam Thomas) who she slept with after Adam and Victoria (Isabel Hodgins) had a bust-up.
Vanessa resolved to find out the truth by taking saliva from a bottle of beer of Adam's but when it revealed that Kirin was actually the dad Rakesh doctored the DNA results. In retrospect it's doubtful how reliable a parent Kirin would have made. When Vanessa had a cancer scare in 2015 Kirin shirked the responsibility of going to hospital with her for the scan pretending his dad's car had broken down.
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Vanessa acknowledged that Kirin was still a teenager so it was no surprise that he was behaving like one. When he later discovered what his dad had done with the test results Kirin did declare that Johnny meant everything to him. "My son is the best thing that ever happened to me," he shouted as he turned his back on his dad for good.
Kirin moved back in with Vanessa but it wasn't long before the responsibilities of parenthood proved too much for him. When Carly Hope (Gemma Atkinson) caught him losing his rag with baby Johnny, Vanessa threw him out. Drunk and feeling sorry for himself Kirin was involved in a hit and run leaving Tess Harris for dead. The last he was heard of was in 2016 having set himself up in a business in South America.
Who was Tess Harris?
Tess Harris (Nicola Stephenson) was the wife of abuser Pierce Harris (Jonathan Wrather) and teaching assistant to Rhona's son Leo. Tess and Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt) began an affair in 2015 whilst he was with Rhona (Zoe Henry).
Tess was on her way to tell Rhona about her and Paddy when she was run over by Kirin. With her dying breath Tess managed to tell Paddy that she loved him. A few days later Paddy confessed all which began the awful spiral of events that led to Pierce and Rhona getting together.
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