Liam Barnett 2015
Marital Status: Amy Williams (Divorced)
Children: Jimmy
Occupation: Salesman

Useless with money and generally lazy, Liam Barnett left his wife Amy and son Jimmy with huge debts following the end of the marriage. After reconnecting with her long-lost father Paul Robinson, Amy, along with 9-year-old Jimmy, moved to Erinsborough for a fresh start. Though Amy's problems with Liam had made her fiercely independent, she soon came to appreciate the people of Ramsay Street, finding a home with the Rebecchi family and a job with handyman Kyle Canning. Amy and Kyle grew close, and when his wife Georgia suddenly ended their marriage, it looked like the way was clear for Amy and Kyle to get together. As both Amy and Jimmy were growing closer to Kyle and appreciating having him in their lives, Liam made an unexpected appearance in Erinsborough, claiming that he wanted to reconnect with his son.

Kyle was soon feeling left out as Jimmy loved having his dad around again, and though wary, Amy decided to give him the opportunity to prove himself as he showed her his new range of organic hand sanitisers, which he planned to show around to hotel chains. Though she was fully aware that it would probably end up being another of his business schemes that ended in debt and disaster, she was impressed to learn that he'd approached Lassiter's hotel - and that he hadn't used his connection to Amy's dad Paul, who owned the business. Hotel manager Terese Willis had shown an interest in the product and had arranged for Liam to return later that week to demo his sanitisers - Kyle, however, remained convinced that Liam was only going to hurt Amy and Jimmy, and when he spotted Liam by his car, dispensing a different sanitiser into his bottles, he thought he'd found the evidence he needed that the whole thing was a con. He went to Amy with his suspicions, and the pair of them then confronted Liam as he was leaving the hotel after a successful meeting with Terese. Unfortunately, Kyle was left embarrassed when Liam explained that he'd actually been using the other brand as part of a blind sampling, and that the people at Lassiter's had preferred his product to another, more expensive one.

When Kyle then overheard Liam talking on the phone, with the conversation indicating that he owed someone a considerable amount of money, he decided that he'd have to tell Amy. However, when he went to see her, claiming that it was to drop off her pay cheque, she refused to listen to anything he had to say, having only just caught him out in a lie - he had claimed that they needed to stay and do some extra work on the renovations at Harold's Store, when infact it was just a ploy to stop her from spending time with Liam. As Amy and Liam got chatting about old times later that night, they shared a kiss, but she quickly sent him back to the hotel before anything else could happen. When a large sum of money, which had been raised at a benefit for the Rebecchi family, went missing from number 30, Liam became one of the prime suspects, but denied having any involvement. As suspicion then moved on to a cleaning lady who'd been helping the family that day, Liam made a call, and it was clear that he had taken the money to pay off part of his debt, and that he was just using Amy and Paul until he could get hold of the rest of the cash he needed.

The following week, as Liam and Amy grew closer, Paul became concerned that his daughter and grandson were about to get hurt, and went to Kyle to ask him if he knew anything. Kyle admitted that he'd overheard Liam talking to someone, and it seemed like he owed a lot of money - and so Paul went to Liam and told him that their deal to use the hand sanitiser at the hotel would not be going ahead, as he'd had some tests done and the ingredients weren't organic. Liam immediately complained to Amy about what had happened, conveniently leaving out some details and making out that Kyle was to blame. Amy then went to her dad and forced him to reconsider, and Liam was pleased when Paul then backed down, agreeing to take Liam's product at the hotel, as long as the labels were changed, and Liam then made another call, insisting that he'd soon have his debt paid off.

A few days later, as things seemed like they were starting to progress with Amy, Liam was concerned to learn that Sam Mako, the man he'd borrowed money from, had spoken to Jimmy. Liam warned his son not to speak to Sam if he saw him again, but to run away from him. Later that day, with Amy and Liam distracted in the bedroom, Jimmy went missing after claiming that he was just going to walk to Kyle's yard to get some building materials to make a bunker. Though Liam was concerned that Sam had taken him, suspicion immediately fell on Steph Scully, a former resident who had recently returned, after a spell in a secure psychicatric hospital for kidnapping baby Patrick Villante. With everyone out looking for Jimmy, Liam finally told Paul that Sam might have taken him, and Paul insisted that Liam phone Sam and arrange to meet with him, so they could pay the ransom. However, when Sam turned up, he denied any knowledge of Jimmy's whereabouts, but the police swooped, tipped off by Paul, and took Sam and Liam for questioning. By the time Jimmy was found - he'd been hiding out in the tunnels at the school, having seen Sam again - Liam had admitted to stealing the benefit money from the Rebecchis, and to a recent break-in at Harold's Cafe, which he'd tried to pass off as a personal attack on Lauren, the cafe's owner. Furious that Liam had once again been dragging her and Jimmy into his mess, she told him that he could never see their son again, but he warned that he would take her to court. When Paul found out about Liam's threat, he took matters into his own hands, paying Liam's bail and arranging to meet him. He then offered to get the charges dropped, and gave Liam a cheque, saying that he'd have to use the money to disappear and never see Amy or Jimmy again. Forced to choose between his son and money, he took the latter and left, unaware that a heartbroken Jimmy had woken up and overheard the entire thing.

Tenure
7216, 7217, 7220, 7223, 7224, 7227, 7231, 7232, 7233

Biography by Steve

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