diff --git a/escher/src/text_field.cpp b/escher/src/text_field.cpp
index 649e803a7..122727cee 100644
--- a/escher/src/text_field.cpp
+++ b/escher/src/text_field.cpp
@@ -149,12 +149,11 @@ bool TextField::ContentView::removePreviousGlyph() {
 
   if (m_horizontalAlignment > 0.0f) {
     /* Reload the view. If we do it later, the text beins supposedly shorter, we
-     *  will not clean the first char. */
+     * will not clean the first char. */
     reloadRectFromPosition(m_draftTextBuffer);
   }
   // Remove the glyph if possible
-  CodePoint removedCodePoint = 0;
-  int removedSize = UTF8Helper::RemovePreviousGlyph(m_draftTextBuffer, const_cast<char *>(cursorLocation()), &removedCodePoint);
+  int removedSize = UTF8Helper::RemovePreviousGlyph(m_draftTextBuffer, const_cast<char *>(cursorLocation()));
   if (removedSize == 0) {
     assert(cursorLocation() == m_draftTextBuffer);
     return false;
diff --git a/ion/include/ion/unicode/utf8_helper.h b/ion/include/ion/unicode/utf8_helper.h
index fb4938b11..94994b086 100644
--- a/ion/include/ion/unicode/utf8_helper.h
+++ b/ion/include/ion/unicode/utf8_helper.h
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ bool CodePointIsUpperCaseLetter(CodePoint c);
 bool CodePointIsNumber(CodePoint c);
 
 // Shift the buffer and return the number of bytes removed.
-int RemovePreviousGlyph(const char * text, char * location, CodePoint * c);
+int RemovePreviousGlyph(const char * text, char * location, CodePoint * c = nullptr);
 
 /* Return the pointer to the (non combining) code point whose glyph is displayed
  * at the given position, and vice-versa */
diff --git a/ion/src/shared/unicode/utf8_helper.cpp b/ion/src/shared/unicode/utf8_helper.cpp
index 944163d81..d0ed6f001 100644
--- a/ion/src/shared/unicode/utf8_helper.cpp
+++ b/ion/src/shared/unicode/utf8_helper.cpp
@@ -267,7 +267,6 @@ bool CodePointIsNumber(CodePoint c) {
 }
 
 int RemovePreviousGlyph(const char * text, char * location, CodePoint * c) {
-  assert(c != nullptr);
   if (location <= text) {
     assert(location == text);
     return 0;
@@ -276,7 +275,9 @@ int RemovePreviousGlyph(const char * text, char * location, CodePoint * c) {
   // Find the previous glyph
   UTF8Decoder decoder(text, location);
   const char * previousGlyphPos = decoder.previousGlyphPosition();
-  *c = decoder.nextCodePoint();
+  if (c != nullptr) {
+    *c = decoder.nextCodePoint();
+  }
 
   // Shift the buffer
   int shiftedSize = location - previousGlyphPos;