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Guest Character Profiles > Dax Braddock Dean Kirkright

As Ned Willis got himself involved with a gang who were 3D printing guns, he was unaware that his girlfriend Yashvi Rebecchi had been working with the police to bring them down. Just as it looked like gang leader Zenin Alexio was about to kill Ned, Detective Sergeant Dax Braddock, along with Yashvi and other officers, arrived to arrest them all. Later in the year, Dax, along with Detective Sky Mangel, burst into Mackenzie Hargreaves' apartment, after she unwittingly rented her spare room to criminal Mannix Foster, who'd been hiding stolen goods in his room, and later arrested Mannix when he was spotted on Ramsay Street. A couple of months later, Dax also headed up the case when Andrea Somers escaped from prison and snatched her son, Hugo. Using Andrea's mother, Heather, they managed to track Andrea down and reunite Hugo with his father, Toadie.

Soon after, when Harlow Robinson was wrongly arrested for drug possession and supply, she claimed that she'd found them and decided to burn them, with the police struggling to believe her story. After a night in a police cell, Dax told Harlow's family, Paul and Terese, that she was doing well and later, Terese approached Dax and asked him if there was anything he could do, as a favour, to bring the whole nightmare to an end. Dax insisted that he understood, as he had two boys of his own, and would try to work something out. When Harlow was later released without charge, Terese was amazed that her little chat had worked, until Dax's wife, Kerryn, arrived at the hotel for a spa treatment, assuming that it would be free after her husband's chat with Terese, and Terese realised to her horror that she'd accidentally bribed a police sergeant. When Kerryn then returned, wanting mates' rates to hire a function room for Dax's 40th birthday, Terese realised that she needed to nip it in the bud, and she went to Dax, explaining what had happened and insisting that it hadn't been her intention to bribe him. He assured her that it was just a misunderstanding between him and his wife and he'd have a word with her.

A few weeks later, as drugs continued to appear in the area, Yashvi, who'd recently joined the police, acted on a hunch, suspecting that Erinsborough High student Ollie Sudekis had something to do with it, as he'd been at the party where Harlow had found the first stash of drugs too. When Yashvi searched Ollie, she found some tape that had been used on the bags of drugs that had just been found at the school. Dax was impressed with Yashvi's work and, when the tape was found to be a match a few days later, he told her to bring Ollie in for questioning. When Ollie let slip during his interview that the drugs were speed - information that hadn't been made public yet - Dax gave her the go-ahead to charge him, again complimenting Yashvi on her work.

Meanwhile, it also became clear that Shane Rebecchi was developing a drug problem and had started buying from River Hanlon, a friend at uni. As they struggled to find a connection between Ollie and River, Yashvi and colleague Levi put out a call to keep an eye on River, and Dax was furious when he found out. He told them that they needed to run these things past him before doing them, and also told Yashvi that, as Shane was her father, there was a conflict of interest and she was now off the case. When Yashvi then tried to find out what was going on, Dax told her that he didn't see any point in continuing to investigate River, leaving her frustrated, particularly as Levi told her that they had to respect the decisions of their seniors. However, Yashvi continued to push the point, until Dax warned her that, if she didn't drop it, then things might start to get difficult for Shane, and he accused her of being a 'loose cannon', telling her that she'd be on desk duties for a while.

When Yashvi went to Levi to complain about Dax's strange behaviour and her suspicions that he was corrupt, Levi admitted that he thought the same thing, but had been going along with him to avoid things turning nasty until they had real evidence. They shared their belief that Dax was happy to arrest Ollie for dealing as he wasn't actually the dealer, and that Dax and River were both somehow involved in the drugs that had been flooding the area lately. As Yashvi agreed to avoid Dax as much as possible, whilst quietly trying to track down River, Levi kept up a friendship with Dax as they went for a drink together and Levi made a point of asking for extra shifts and acting like he really needed the money. However, when Levi and Yashvi managed to find River, he did a runner before calling Dax to find out what was going on. When River then called Yashvi and asked her to meet him alone, she did it, and found him having been tasered and barely conscious, whilst Dax went to visit Levi at home, making it clear that he knew what he and Yashvi had been up to. As River was rushed to hospital, Dax and Levi arrived, with Dax demanding to know who'd done this to him. When River then blamed Yashvi for his injuries, she realised that she was being set up by him and Dax to get her off the case. Yashvi was unable to do anything as she was suspended pending an investigation, and Dax took her belt, along with her taser. Realising that her taser had never been fired and could prove her innocence, Yashvi told Levi to get to it before Dax could fire it.

Unfortunately, Dax caught Levi trying to take the taser, and matters only got worse when Dax also caught Levi taking his epilepsy medication. Aware that Levi hadn't declared his epilepsy when he'd joined the police, Dax threatened to report it unless Levi backed off from River and stopped helping Yashvi. Levi agreed to this, but when he later went to Yashvi to report that he'd tried, and failed, to retrieve her taser, Dax was watching from a distance, concerned that the two of them were still having contact. He then broke into the Canning house and swapped out Levi's epilepsy medication for different tablets. As Yashvi and Levi continued to work on bringing down Dax, she persuaded him to get the files on all of the cases Dax had worked on for the past five years, trying to find something that could help them. They then found out that one of Dax's previous partners had been corrupt cop Jeremy Briggs, who was in prison after setting fire to an evidence locker. Levi found out that amongst the evidence had been a huge stash of drugs that had been seized and they realised that Jeremy could easily have taken it before starting the fire. Now aware of how Dax got the drugs, and that he'd been using River to deal them at the university, they were still left wondering who'd he'd been using to deal at the school, still sure that Ollie had been set up.

Yashvi decided to go to the school and ask some of the students if they recognised a photo of River, with panicked student Lacy Lane quickly calling Dax and telling him what was going on. As she tried to leave the school, Lacy was approached by Yashvi, and blurted out that she was the school dealer and that Dax was heading the operation - and that he was on his way. As Yashvi called Levi and asked him to come and help, he was already suffering the effects of his medication being swapped and he ended up having a fit. As Dax turned up at the school, Yashvi was left to deal with the situation on her own, but as Lacy did a runner and disappeared into the school, Dax threatened Yashvi with a taser unless she helped him track her down. They soon came across school principal Susan Kennedy, as well as students Richie Amblin and Mackenzie Hargreaves, in a classroom and a hostage situation began, whilst back on Ramsay Street, Levi finally received help and he raised the alarm as he remembered what was happening at the school. As Yashvi tried to save the day, she spoke to Dax about why he'd risked his police career to be a low-level drug dealer and he admitted that it was to help Jeremy Briggs and to support his family now they he was in prison. When Harlow Robinson then unwittingly walked into the classroom siege, Dax chased after her, hitting Richie with his baton when he tried to follow. After trapping Harlow and her grandfather Paul in the school toilets, Dax returned to the classroom, angry as he heard police sirens outside. As he tried to find a way out of the school, Dax managed to turn off the electricity in the building and, as Yashvi attempted to find him, Susan, Richie and Mackenzie decided to also try and make their escape. However, in the darkness, they ended up getting separated and Mackenzie found herself being tasered when she ran into Dax, who then came across Yashvi as he tried to get out of the school. She quickly managed to disarm him, just as the SWAT police arrived and arrested him.

Trivia Notes
• Dean Kirkright previously appeared in 2006 as Anthony Steele and in 2011 as Cameron Kenihan

Episodes Featured
8300, 8341, 8342, 8387, 8399, 8400, 8411, 8415, 8436, 8437, 8441, 8442, 8444, 8445

Biography by Steve

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