'EastEnders' fans start #FreeWhitney campaign after she's refused bail

EastEnders fans have launched an online campaign calling for jailed Whitney Dean to be set free.

Fans of the BBC soap know that Whit – who’s played by Shona McGarty – was refused bail last week as she was considered a flight risk.

Whitney is being charged with the murder of Leo King, the twisted son of Tony King who abused Whit when she was a schoolgirl.

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Whit’s solicitor, Gray Atkins, was sure she’d be granted bail after he persuaded Kush Kazemi to plead guilty for his attack on evil Leo.

Gray (Toby Alexander Smith) told Kush that if he changed his plea, it would put more weight behind Whitney’s story that Leo was stalking her and making her life a misery.

Tensions were high in court as Gray pleaded Whitney’s case but the judge agreed she should be held on remand until her trial as she hadn’t reported Leo’s death straight away, but had got dressed up and went to the boat party instead.

Whitney didn’t take the news very well and was seen hurling her food tray across her cell before punching the door until her knuckles bled.

And now fans have started a #FreeWhitney hashtag on social media, hoping to see her back on the Square where she belongs.

One viewer wrote: “Poor Whitney, she doesn’t deserve this” and added the hashtag.

Another agreed, tweeting: “We really need a #FreeWhitney from prison protest.”

And a third simply said: “#FREEWHITNEY”

Whitney stabbed Leo to death in Dot Cotton’s kitchen after discovering he’d been spying on her from the attic.

The twisted character was planning on killing her in order to avenge Tony – who killed himself in prison after being sent down for abusing Whit.

Whitney left the body there after calling Mick Carter to help her. He said he would but changed his mind, leaving Sonia Fowler to make the grisly discovery.

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Later, a distraught Whitney turned herself into the police when they arrived at the tragic scene of the boat disaster.

It’s not the first time soap fans have campaigned to free an innocent character. Back in 1998, Coronation Street fans were horrified when Deirdre Barlow was sent to jail for fraud. A huge campaign to get her out kicked off, with Tony Blair (who was Prime Minister at the time) and Conservative leader, William Hague, getting involved.

EastEnders continues tonight at 8pm on BBC One.