Kat Slater and Alfie Moon (Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie) face a parenting

struggle in EastEnders next week, when their son Tommy (Sonny Kendall) turns

to crime. The former couple are concerned about the youngster in forthcoming

scenes, as he opens up to them about how hurt he is that Kat’s estranged husband Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) doesn’t seem interested in him any more. Kat split from the Walford hardman earlier this year after she discovered he had cheated on her with Lola Pearce’s (Danielle Harold) birth mother Emma Harding (Patsy Kensit). Phil had built a close bond with Tommy during his and Kat’s time as a couple, becoming like a father to him, which at the time, caused difficulty with adopted dad and Kat’s ex Alfie.

Kat is worried about her teenage son Tommy With Kat and Phil now in the middle of a messy divorce – and Phil also distracted by the arrival of some long-lost Mitchells in Walford – Tommy is upset at the distance between him and his stepdad, saddening Kat and Alfie. However, Kat is mortified later in the week when Tommy is caught on camera shoplifting from the Minute Mart. As Kat confides in Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) over her worries about Tommy, she suggests that Kat needs to find Tommy a job to keep him out of trouble. But will employment keep the teen on the straight and narrow, or is it a short-term fix to a bigger problem?