Martin and Sonia once spoke about the financial worries of comatose Debbie’s care home fees during a conversation in the market, but her callous comments have come back to haunt her

EastEnders’ Sonia Fowler (played by Natalie Cassidy) has been charged with the murder of Debbie Colwell (Jenny Meier), but her ex-husband Martin could be partly to blame.

During Wednesday’s visit to Albert Square (August 21), which is available to watch on iPlayer, pregnant Sonia and her partner Reiss Colwell (Johnny Freeman) were questioned by police for Debbie’s murder which took place last month.

While Reiss was able to provide an alibi which places him at Peggy’s the night of her death, Sonia had zero evidence that proved she was in Walford at the time of Debbie’s death.

While being questioned under caution, the police officer asked Sonia: “You never felt like she was in the way?” before adding: “We have a witness statement, you were heard saying ‘things would be much easier if she was dead’.”

During an EastEnders scene that aired on July 24, Sonia was strolling through the market, when she paused to chat with her ex-husband Martin (James Bye).

She vented about the burden of Debbie’s care home expenses and told him: “If she slipped away it wouldn’t be a bad thing”, before adding: “The care home fees are crippling us.”

Martin watched uncomfortably as Sonia realised how insensitive she sounded about Debbie’s health condition, and feeling remorseful, she decided to visit Debbie which explains why her DNA was at the scene of the crime.

The same night Reiss visited Debbie and killed her to ease the burden of their financial worries. Reiss stood up, removed a pillow from behind Debbie’s head, and gave her a forehead kiss before smothering her to death.

It appears Martin has told the police about Sonia’s comment towards Debbie, and has now landed her in serious trouble.

The market stall holder was panicked as he asked Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) to help get Sonia released.

The hard man agreed and sent a solicitor to get the nurse off the hook, but it failed and Sonia was charged with murder while Reiss was released.