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Guest Character Profiles > Phil Buffett Indigo Parer

After his daughter Sadie had her drink spiked, Sergeant Andrew Rodwell decided to organise some self-defence lessons for the locals. With Sadie unable to help out one week, Andrew asked Holly Hoyland if she would assist him for the afternoon and she reluctantly agreed, cancelling plans to spend time with new boyfriend, Max Ramsay. Max then decided to attend the class himself and Andrew told them to pair up with other people, as they knew each other too well. As she attempted to work with a man named Phil, Holly was jealous as she watched Max pair up with Sandra Jago. After seeing Sandra put her hand on Max's leg, Holly stormed over to introduce herself, then, with no warning, demonstrated the throw they'd been practising, leaving Sandra shocked and bruised. Holly was unapologetic when Andrew told her that what she'd done was very dangerous, but she was forced to apologise when Max said that he'd told Sandra to put her hand on his leg, to help with positioning for the throw, and she'd been doing nothing wrong.

When Phil attended the next self-defence class, things between Holly and Sandra had improved, but it looked like Max had never been the object of Sandra's affections - Holly and Max soon noticed the way that Sandra was looking at Andrew and how she was the first to put her hand up when he needed a volunteer. With Andrew completely oblivious, Max was forced to tell him what was going on, and Andrew was left to let Sandra down gently, explaining that he was married.

There was more drama at the next class when Andrew's wife Wendy decided to join. With the Rodwells already having problems at home, Wendy was annoyed when Sandra turned up and made a beeline for Andrew. As the class progressed, Sandra struggled with teenager Archie, who she'd been partnered with and who was clearly enjoying manhandling an older woman. Sandra finally snapped and told him to get off her, at which point Andrew stepped in and asked Archie to leave the class. As Sandra then claimed that she'd hurt her shoulder, asking Andrew to have a look at it, Wendy was further irritated, feeling that Andrew was deliberately trying to upset her. As the class came to an end, Wendy confronted her husband with her accusations, ranting at him until he pointed out that the entire class was looking at them.

When Sandra was then catfished by a dating profile pretending to be Andrew, it caused huge problems in his marriage, with Wendy doubting his innocence in the whole thing. When Wendy's friend Nicolette set up a fake profile of her own and arranged to meet with the mysterious HotRod69, nobody showed up, but his location tracking on the app showed him to be over a kilometre away, proving Andrew's innocence as he was just outside in his car. However, it left them all no closer to working out who the catfisher could be, until Holly suggested that it might be Archie, as he'd been thrown out of one of the classes and had reason to want revenge. However, as Andrew, Wendy and Nicolette attempted to find evidence of Archie's guilt, they were unaware that Phil was standing at the end of the street, watching them.

When Archie was then found to have an alibi and Sandra finally agreed to talk about what had happened and show the messages she'd shared with the man she thought was Andrew, he quickly recognised the house in a photo of a sunset that had been sent to her by HotRod69. When Andrew went to the house, he heard someone in the garden and let himself in, finding Phil standing there doing some gardening. As Andrew explained that someone had been using his images to catfish Sandra, Phil claimed to know nothing about it, then, as soon as Andrew turned to leave, he lashed out, hitting him over the head with a spade. He then tied Andrew up in his garage and told him how he'd been rejected by Sandra, who'd claimed that she wasn't interested in seeing anyone. After finding out about her crush on Andrew, however, he'd used the fake profile to get his revenge.

After deciding to try again with a fake profile to flush out HotRod69, Holly was surprised as she stood on Ramsay Street and noticed that he was only 200 metres away. As she managed to reel him in, Holly asked for his address, and Phil was only too happy to give it, telling Andrew that he was going to have some fun. However, when Holly realised that the catfisher lived just across the road, on Oakview Street, she headed over there. When she found Phil in the back garden, she had to think quickly, saying that she had always found him attractive and that her boyfriend didn't need to know what was going on. As Phil then went to close the gate, Holly heard Andrew banging on the wall of a storage shed and opened it up before Phil could stop her. As Phil then ranted about how women had always let him down and didn't want a nice guy, Holly used her self-defence training, kneeing him in the groin and knocking him to the ground, before holding a hammer over him and warning him not to move as she helped a grateful Andrew.

Episodes Featured
9225, 9232, 9238, 9246, 9250, 9251

Biography by Steve

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