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Guest Character Profiles > Ezra Hanley Steve Nation

Ezra Hanley 2014, 2015
Children: Clem
Occupation: Manager of Lassiter's Perth, Acquisitions Manager with Quill Group

Whilst working as manager of Lassiter's hotel in Perth, Ezra Hanley grew close to Terese Willis, his deputy, and an affair almost followed. When they grew too close, Terese considered suing him for sexual harassment, and the attraction also damaged her marriage to Brad, who had always felt that he wasn't quite ambitious and dynamic enough for her. They soon moved on from the matter, and Terese received a promotion to manager, transferring to the hotel branch in Erinsborough.

Eighteen months after the Willis family had left Perth, Brad and Terese's marriage was facing more problems, this time triggered by his past, as he kissed old flame Lauren, with whom, he'd only just found out, he had a daughter. As Terese struggled to move on from the betrayal, she ended up moving into the hotel to consider her feelings. She also ended up confiding in her boss, Paul Robinson, about her feelings and she dropped Ezra's name into the conversation. Having never believed that Brad was good enough for Terese, Paul decided to use this information, inviting Ezra along to a conference that the hotel was holding, a think tank for a planned festival to be held in Erinsborough. Paul claimed that he'd invited Ezra because of his excellent track record in staging festivals, but both Terese and Ezra quickly saw through this excuse and were uncomfortable at being used by him. As they chatted about old times, and Ezra mentioned that he had split up from his partner Karen, he remembered the old attraction he'd used to feel, and although Terese couldn't deny that she felt it too, she was determined to stay loyal to her husband.

But after an argument with Brad over the situation, Terese ended up going for a drink with Ezra, which only made matters worse for the couple when she confessed it to Brad. With the marriage seemingly at crisis point, Terese ended up spending another evening with Ezra and after sharing some wine in her hotel room, they almost kissed, but Terese pulled away, opened the door and asked Ezra to leave. But, not willing to leave it at that, Ezra closed the door and stared at an increasingly worried Terese. She managed to fight him off and get him out the door, and he quickly returned to Perth. When Brad and Paul learnt what had happened, it was enough to repair the Willis marriage, and Paul was horrified that his actions had led to Terese's terrifying experience and so he had Ezra fired.

Word then came through the Ezra was suing for unfair dismissal, naming both Paul and Terese in the lawsuit. When Ezra returned to Erinsborough to begin mediation, Paul tried to get one over on him, using his lawyer Tim Collins as the mediator, hoping that Ezra would slip up. The plan failed, as Ezra quickly saw through them and refused to be intimidated by Brad and Paul's threats. When Brad then went to Paul and made him feel guilty about encouraging Terese to spend time with Ezra, he decided to get rid of Ezra by underhanded means, and arranged for Gary Canning to beat him up. Ezra was left suitably shaken and returned to Perth, where he dropped the lawsuit, leaving the police in Erinsborough investigating the attack. After attempting to do a runner, Gary later handed himself in and was sentenced to six months in prison.

A few months later, under the misapprehension that he was dying from leukaemia, Paul decided to make some drastic changes in his life, one of which was to sell the hotel to the Quill Group, who had been interested in buying it once before. However, when their Acquisitions Manager arrived, Terese, Brad and Paul were horrified to realise that it was Ezra, who had been headhunted by Quill. Ezra quickly made his mark, putting Terese on reception and demanding two years of accounts from Sheila at The Waterhole, taking the opportunity to remind her that her son was in prison for attacking him. After also taking away a large chunk of business from Sonya Rebecchi's nursery by cutting the hotel's flower order, Ezra turned his attentions back to Terese, finding fault with many of her decisions from the past few months, including the employment of Chris Pappas - who had been the victim of a coward punch by Terese's son Josh - on an inflated wage, and sending Sharon Canning away on a cruise, as 'research' for Lassiter's, when she just wanted to get her out of town. The final straw came for Terese when Ezra told her that he'd had complaints from staff, who were uncomfortable being around her since her brother Nick had been charged with falsifying medical documents and leading Paul to wrongly believe that he was suffering from leukaemia. As she ranted at Ezra, he told her that she'd always looked 'hot' when she was angry, and she finally snapped and quit her job, leaving the next day to visit her daughter Piper in Canada.

Ezra then continued to cause trouble around the Lassiter's Complex, employing Nate Kinski as a trainee manager at The Waterhole, despite his lack of experience, in the hope of ousting Sheila from her job and attracting a younger clientele to the bar. He also managed to annoy Paul by telling him that he'd have to get rid of his dog, Bouncer 2, as pets were strictly against the terms of the owners' corporation regulations. He then turned his attentions back to more personal matters, as his son Clem had just started moved over from Perth and started at Erinsborough High, a temporary placement until he could get in to Eden Hills Grammar. There, Clem immediately clashed with his teacher, Brad, describing Terese as a 'scrag' when they were alone in the classroom together, then denying all knowledge and placing an official complaint when principal Susan found out. When Brad then noticed that Clem was upset after receiving a text message during one of his classes, he tried to get to the bottom of the matter and, after confiscating the phone, he noticed a message from someone named Chloe. However, as he pursued the matter, Clem again denied all knowledge of the incident, and Ezra phoned Susan and demanded that something be done about the way that Brad was victimising Clem. With the two versions of events at odds with each other, Susan was left with no option but to suspend Brad from his job.

Ezra continued to cause trouble at the bar, pressing ahead with his plan to revamp the business and rival the recently-opened Off Air Bar. As they attempted to get to the bottom of the matter, Sheila and Nate plotted to make Ezra think that they'd fallen out, and Nate managed to get Ezra to reveal his plans, and also to mention that he'd recently bribed his son by buying him some expensive trading cards. When Terese returned from Canada, Ezra wasted little time in taunting her about Brad being suspended from his job, not to mention that fact that he'd been spending so much time with Lauren, but she became concerned when she heard about Clem's behaviour, as he'd always been such a polite boy when she'd known him back in Perth. When Nate then mentioned the trading card 'bribe' to her, she grew more suspicious, and both she and Susan tried to talk to Clem and find out what was troubling him. Though he reacted badly to their interference, he finally came to his senses and went to Susan, unsure who else to turn to, and explained that he believed that his dad might have assaulted his girlfriend, Chloe. Ezra was taken in for questioning about the incident after Susan reported it, and Clem quickly returned home to Perth to live with his mum, having realised what sort of man his father was. However, with Chloe refusing to talk about the incident, Terese had to trick her into an online chat, claiming to have an internship for her. When Terese mentioned Ezra, Chloe almost hung up, but Terese then explained that Ezra had attempted to assault her too, and that they needed to be strong and speak out against men like him. As Chloe agreed to go to the police, Ezra was arrested for assault, and he was warned that they would be speaking to every woman he'd worked with, both in Erinsborough and back in Perth, to make sure that all of his victims got the justice they deserved.