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Guest Character Profiles > Holden Brice Toby Derrick

After Brent Colefax arrived in Erinsborough, where his little brother Emmett was being fostered by Aaron Brennan and David Tanaka, it quickly became clear that he was very troubled. After returning to residential care, then ending up living on the streets, Brent became involved with a gang, who ultimately beat and robbed him, causing him to return to Ramsay Street and hide out at Aaron and David's place. As Aaron and David tried to help Brent, his past soon caught up with him when Holden Brice arrived, trying to get Brent to rejoin the gang. Holden had been causing trouble in Erinsborough, trashing a mural at the university, then attacking Roxy Willis when she was investigating it, and had sent Brent a skull ring, something that all members of the gang had to wear and that had been found at the scene of Roxy's attack. Holden insisted that he was going to continue causing problems in the area until Brent agreed to join the gang again, but Brent refused, saying that he had a new life now and didn't want to jeopardise it. Holden then appeared to back down, agreeing that he'd leave if Brent just did him one final favour - hiding a stolen motorbike at Aaron and David's house. Though Brent was reluctant, Holden swore that it would be the last thing he asked for and, the following day, sent Brent the details of where to find the bike.

Having hidden the bike in the Doug-Out, the bar in no. 32's back garden, Brent was concerned when he heard that Leila Potts was coming by to check things out and assess whether Emmett could come back to stay. Having to think quickly, Brent moved the motorbike to local community hub, the Hive, where he'd been helping out. After a few days, Holden got in touch and asked Brett to hide the bike for a little longer but unfortunately, Ned Willis, manager of the Hive, found the bike before Brent could get rid of it and a police investigation began. With Paul Robinson - the owner of the Hive and grandfather of Brent's girlfriend, Harlow - sure that Brent was somehow involved, and an angry Holden telling Brent that he owed him, Brent began to panic and Emmett began to notice his brother's odd behaviour. Emmett then followed Brent when he met up with Holden again, who threatened Brent's family unless he did another job. Brent agreed and, after realising that Emmett had been watching, he was forced to come clean, explaining that Holden was the leader of the gang he'd been involved with when he was living on the streets. As the gang had already beaten up Brent once before, he didn't want to say no, but assured Emmett that he was just going to string Holden along until he found some other way to make money.

Having heard this, Emmett decided to try and help his brother by meeting Holden and offering him $100 to stay away from Brent, explaining that he was trying really hard to keep out of trouble. Holden claimed to be impressed and he offered to back off, but it wasn't long before Brent got back in touch with him. Feeling that Aaron and David didn't want him and Emmett around, as they were now expecting a baby with Nicolette Stone, Brent contacted Holden and told him about some valuable power tools that had been stored at the Hive by the local high school. He offered to help to steal them, if he and Emmett could get a cut of the profits in order to make a fresh start away from David and Aaron. After Brett agreed to provide the key and alarm code for the building and negotiated a split of the profits, the robbery went ahead but quickly went horribly wrong when a suspicious Emmett followed his brother and found out what was going on, with pregnant Nicolette close behind with suspicions of her own. After catching Holden, Nicolette found herself thrown against a shelving unit which fell on top of her, leaving her unconscious. When teacher Curtis Perkins then arrived and also caught Holden in the act, he was hit around the head, causing his cochlear implant to malfunction, meaning that he couldn't hear Nicolette, who was now screaming in pain. Whilst Curtis was then forced to run to the police station for help, Nicolette's mum, Jane found her daughter and also raised the alarm.

As he and Emmett found out the full extent of what had happened at the Hive, Brent began to realise that they needed to get out of Erinsborough quickly. Emmett, however, didn't want to run and decided to take the blame for what had happened but an increasingly guilty Brent decided to do a runner on his own, leaving an apologetic note for Emmett and another for Harlow, explaining his involvement and telling her that Holden was involved. After hiding out for a few weeks, with only Harlow knowing where he was, Brent was ready to hand himself in when he was caught and arrested and found himself in a remand centre with Holden. Desperate to keep Harlow away from Brent, Paul visited Holden and suggested that he could tell the police about his gang's other criminal activities, and paint Brent as the ringleader, causing him to receive a longer sentence, offering to pay him if he agreed. Holden decided to go along with it, leaving Brent almost certainly facing time in prison. However, when Ned was then visiting Brent, he spotted Paul and Holden deep in conversation, quickly realising what was going on. He and Paul's wife, Terese, then forced Paul to fix the mess but, as Holden had already been offered a reduced sentence in return for the information about Brent, he was unwilling to go back on his word, even when Paul tried offering him more money.

Whilst Brent ultimately avoided a prison sentence by joining the Australian Defence Force, Holden remained in prison and, the following year, was joined by David, who, as well as being Paul's son, was on remand for committing medical manslaughter. Desperately worried for his son, Paul visited Holden and offered to pay him if he could protect David. Holden agreed to this, before going to see David in his cell and telling him that, rather than avoiding prisoners like Dan Waskett who'd been hassling him, he should stand up to them. Against his better judgement, David decided to listen to this, only to receive another beating from Dan as an amused Holden stood and watched. When Paul visited David the next day, he was horrified to see that his son had been beaten up again and went to request another visit with Holden, only to be told that he'd been removed from Holden's visiting list. Later that day, Holden visited David in his cell again, making it clear who he was and how he had a history with Paul and experience of him trying to buy people. He added that he'd taken Paul's money with no intention of doing what he asked - and that Paul had it coming.

Trivia Notes
• Toby Derrick previously appeared in 2010 as Rick O'Donnell

Episodes Featured
8580, 8586, 8597, 8615, 8616, 8880, 8881

Biography by Steve

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