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Guest Character Profiles > Josh Burns Scott Brennan

Josh Burns 2009
Marital Status: Julianne
Occupation: Editor of West Waratah Star Newspaper
Died: 2009

Having quit as a journalist at the Erinsborough News, owned by her father Paul, Elle Robinson went for an interview with rival paper the West Waratah Star, where editor Josh Burns snapped her up. When teenage mum Bridget Parker died following a car accident, Elle was assigned to write a story about how the police report had shown the car to be faulty. However, with neighbour Steph Scully the mechanic repsonsible for servicing the Parker car, Elle's boyfriend and Steph's colleague Lucas attempted to talk her out of going ahead with the story, and, worried for Lucas' reputation, she reported back to her disappointed editor that she was considering running a tribute to Bridget instead, lying that her police contacts had let her down. When Josh then found out the truth about her cover up, he demoted her to editing the letters page and warned her that, now he had his own copy of the police report, he'd be running a story implicating Lucas and the garage. Elle, desperate to save Lucas, distracted him at work before finding a copy of the work report on the Parker car, which was signed by Steph, and handing it over to another of the Star's journalists, Martine. When it emerged a couple of weeks later that the whole incident was Lucas' fault, as the Parkers' car had been sabotaged by a gambling acquaintance that Lucas owed money to, disgusted Elle decided to write a story about it. Josh quickly told her that he wasn't going to publish her personal vendetta, but behind his back, she phoned in and said that Josh had given the story the go ahead to be published. The next day, as Josh realised what she'd done, he tracked her down at the bar and handed her a final payslip, telling her that he never wanted to see her again.

When Elle later scored a job working for a housing development called Waratah Heights, she was asked to turn some information into a press release. As she read it, she realised that the land they were about to build on had been zoned as industrial only a week earlier and, sensing a story, she went to the site to investigate. There, she found Josh, who'd also been looking into the shady business dealings at Waratah Heights and he followed her as she went down a manhole. Though Elle made it down the rickety ladder, it gave way with Josh still on it, and he fell to the concrete with the ladder falling on top of him. Realising that he was seriously hurt, but with no way back out, Elle overcame her claustrophobia to crawl through a tunnel and call for help, but by the time the paramedics arrived, it was too late and Josh died, with Elle left to break the news to Josh's wife, Julianne.

Episodes Featured
5741, 5742, 5751, 5808, 5809

Biography by Steve

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