'Emmerdale' boss slammed for sacking toddler

A mum has slammed Emmerdale producer Anita Turner after her two-year-old son was sacked for crying.

Benjamin Shooter, who joined the ITV1 soap as Samson Dingle last April, was replaced by another toddler in February after bursting into tears when he saw screen dad Sam (James Hooton). The pair had filmed a dramatic family row scene a few days earlier.

Mum Emma Shooter condemned bosses of treating her son like a "prop" and putting him in “horrifying” scenes showing armed robber Sam turning himself in to police.

The 31-year-old from Tadcaster, Yorkshire, said: "He got very upset when his screen dad was confronted by cops and the Dingles. There was a lot of shouting going on. I had to take him straight home to calm down."

Benjamin was back on set four days later but cried every time he saw Hooton.

Emma told The Sun: "If he’d been able to spend a bit of time playing with James, he would have been fine. They sacked him and didn’t give him chance to adjust.”

It was reported last week that morale has dropped on the soap since Turner took over as series producer in January.

She has caused friction on set by axing several characters, including Grayson Sinclair (Christopher Villiers) and Jonny Foster (Richard Grieve).