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Neighbourhood > Guest Character Profiles > Sandy Allen Catherine Hill

Sandy Allen 2001, 2007
Marital Status: John Allen
Children: Braiden, Keisha
Occupation: Pre-School Teacher

When Sandy Allen realised that she was unlikely to ever have children, she encouraged her husband, John in the pursuit of a child he believed to be his own, as a result of a brief affair he’d had several years earlier. When DNA results proved that John was indeed the biological father of seven-year-old Louise 'Lolly' Carpenter, he started seeing her regularly, before Sandy asked if she, too, could meet the little girl. So, one evening soon after, John and Sandy met up with Lolly and Lou, the man who had always believed himself to be her father, at Lou’s pub. Sandy and Lolly quickly hit it off, as Sandy worked in a daycare centre and enjoyed spending time with children. Shortly afterwards, Sandy found work at another daycare centre, closer to Lou and Lolly’s home in Ramsay Street and Lou was annoyed as she started appearing in their local Coffee Shop, so he decided to cancel a planned fishing trip with John, fearful that the Allens were slowly taking over Lolly’s life.

After one chance meeting, Sandy visited Lou at home to apologise, insisting that their meetings were simply coincidences. She went on to explain that the situation was difficult for all of them, with nobody knowing how to behave, and begged Lou not to cut his ties with John, finally telling him that she couldn’t have children and Lolly could be John’s only chance to be a dad. A few weeks later, with Lou still unsure what to do, the Allens applied for custody. Although Lou won interim custody at the first hearing, John and Sandy were given several access visits. Shortly afterwards, the case for full custody was heard and John’s lawyer painted Lou as a poor father, even mentioning Lou’s previous problem with painkiller addiction. The Allens won custody and Lou was devastated as they took his little girl away, announcing a few weeks later that they were leaving the city to make a fresh start in the country, hundreds of kilometres away.

In the years that followed, John and Sandy had two children of their own, Braiden and Keisha, following several IVF attempts, and Sandy slowly came to resent Lolly's presence in the house, and the girl was a constant reminder of John's affair with Cheryl Stark. This resentment manifested itself into mental and physical abuse and, at the age of 15, with Lolly looking for attention by acting up at school, she returned to stay with Lou in Erinsborough. Once there, she struggled to tell anyone about the bruises on her body and, in a moment of panic, accused her teacher, Miss Steiger, of causing them. When Lolly then ran away from home, Sandy came to help with the search and, when the pair were left alone following Lolly's safe return home, Sandy warned her not to act up again, before returning home. With Lou having found a new job as a flight attendant, Sandy agreed to return and look after Lolly for a few days. As Lolly's face dropped at the news of Sandy's imminent arrival, her friend Ringo Brown finally worked out who was responsible for her injuries and encouraged her to speak up and to stand up for herself. Fuelled by anger, Lolly decided to deal with Sandy once and for all and cut the brakes on her hire car. Unfortunately though, she sabotaged the wrong car, causing innocent parties Glenn Forrest and Boyd Hoyland to be involved in an accident.

When Lolly later saw Sandy drive back into Ramsay Street, this only made her more upset and, later, she confronted Sandy, who was cleaning the pool, leading to an altercation during which Sandy fell into the pool, hitting her head on the way down. Although Lolly froze at first, when Ringo came into the backyard she quickly snapped into action and saved her stepmother by performing CPR, a scene which a shocked Lou returned to. With Sandy at the hospital, Lolly plucked up the courage to tell Lou the truth, showing him diary entries, dating years back, in which she wrote about what had been happening. When Sandy returned from hospital, she found her bags packed and reacted angrily when she found out what Lolly had been saying. Lou immediately jumped to Lolly's defense and told Sandy that he had been in touch with John, and human services, and she was going to pay for what she had done. And so Sandy left, but her actions had already cost her her marriage and access to her children.

Trivia Notes
• Sandy was credited as ‘Sally Allen’ for her first two episodes, but always referred to as Sandy on-screen

Biography by Steve

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