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Neighbourhood > Guest Character Profiles > Brendan Bell Blair Venn

Brendan Bell 2000
Marital Status: Teresa [Tess]
Family Tree: Bell
Occupation: Lawyer Died: 2000

Duplicitous lawyer Brendan Bell had a habit of using his wife, Teresa, as a punching bag. At the end of 1999, she’d finally had enough and walked out on him in the middle of the night, turning to her new boss at Erinsborough High, Susan Kennedy, for help. As Susan assisted Tess in finding somewhere else to stay, Brendan was annoyed when he came home and found his wife packing up her belongings to leave. He didn’t show it, however, making Tess’ stories of abuse look bad.

His nice-guy act continued when he met Susan in the Coffee Shop one day and claimed that Tess had been emotionally unstable for a while, since the death of her mother, and just needed some time to get her head together. Brendan told Tess that he understood her concerns and that he’d arranged to attend some anger management classes. A few weeks later, Brendan was back, insisting that he’d changed and that the classes were having the desired effect. Tess wasn’t sure whether to believe him and decided to be cautious, but Brendan slowly made himself a part of her new life. She began to rely on him more when her housemate, Daniel Fitzgerald, moved out. Tess also began to think that her husband really had changed when someone knocked into him in the pub and tried to start a fight, which Brendan calmly backed away from.

When Brendan came over and cooked dinner for Tess one night, things took an interesting turn when his car mysteriously wouldn’t start and he ended up spending the night on the couch. As he left the next morning, Drew came over to fix the car and it miraculously started again, but Tess refused to believe that anything untoward had happened. After a week away on business in Papua New Guinea, Brendan was back and it seemed that Tess had softened even more towards him. After another couple of dates, they ended up sleeping together. As Brendan left the house, neighbour Paul McClain was walking his bike along the pavement, narrowly missing Brendan but causing no damage. Brendan flew into a rage, witnessed by Susan and word soon got back to Tess’ friends. Tess, however, wasn’t prepared to listen, as Brendan asked her to get back together with him and move back into their old home. Before she could give an answer, Brendan announced that he’d be going back to Papua New Guinea for five weeks, but she could answer him upon his return – or even move home in his absence.

At the end of the five weeks, Brendan returned to find Tess still living in Ramsay Street. When there was no answer at number 32, he went next-door and found Toadie Rebecchi, who explained that Tess was out dancing with Daniel. A jealous Brendan flew into a rage and, as he rushed across town to confront her, ended up in an accident with Tess’ friends, Libby Kennedy and Steph Scully, who were on Steph’s motorbike. When Toadie told the police about Brendan’s erratic driving, he was charged with causing the accident and Tess was left confused over whether it had been deliberate or not. However, although it looked like Brendan was going to pull through, an undetected internal injury led to him suffering a fatal heart attack.

Biography by Steve

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