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Neighbourhood > Guest Character Profiles > Olivia McPherson Sylvia De Crespigny

Senior Constable Olivia [Mac] McPherson 2004
Occupation: Police Officer

The third generation of her family to enter the police force, Olivia was a natural at the job. She was soon rising up the ranks to senior constable and living up to the expectations of her father and grandfather. However, things began to get out of control for Olivia when she started going out clubbing all night every night in order to try and forget the pressures of work. As she began spending more than she could afford, she was forced to become corrupt and help with some building site robberies in order to raise extra cash. This added pressure led to her spending more time out clubbing and doing drugs and it all turned into a vicious cycle.

One night, Olivia met a guy, Jack Scully, whilst out clubbing. Jack was also trying to forget about the pressure he was under through work and a series of bad relationships. He and Olivia started to spend a lot of time out together, but she made sure that he only knew her by her nickname, Mac. Although she and Jack were spending a lot of time together, their friendship went no further, and this was the major contributing factor to her belief that he was gay. When she found out that he wasn’t, and was only avoiding her as part of a bet with his mum that he could have a female friend he didn’t sleep with, things started to move on. However, she had other things to worry about when she and Jack were involved in a minor road collision on the way home after another night out. When the police approached the scene, Olivia told Jack to leave, realising that the police officers would probably recognise her as one of their own.

However, her chances of her cover being blown were about to increase with her even realising, when she was partnered up with Stuart Parker, one of Jack’s neighbours. Stuart quickly developed a crush on his fellow officer, and when his over-zealousness led to him making a mistake in his log book, she covered for him. Stuart’s suspicions about Olivia were raised when he noticed her approaching a known criminal and seemingly taking something from him. However, as he was so new to the job, and she had already covered for him, he decided to let it slide. Meanwhile, Olivia’s relationship with Jack was moving on and he was forced to turn to her when his lack of sleep led to the site being robbed. She nonchalantly lent him $1000 and told him that there was no rush to pay it back. It looked like her personal life might be about to be rumbled as Jack and Stuart started hanging out more together, but still neither of them twigged that they were talking about the same girl. Things got a little too domestic for Olivia when Jack’s mother, Lyn, approached her in the Coffee Shop to discuss her relationship with her son.

When Olivia suddenly started demanding the money back from Jack, it was obvious that something about her double life had gone wrong. As her distracted state almost caused her to run over young Summer Hoyland, she realised that she was taking things too seriously, and turned back to the drugs and clubbing. When Jack, who was trying to stay on the straight and narrow, refused to go out with her, she turned nasty and reminded him about his debt to her. Eventually, she agreed to spend the night in with him, but soon her true nature was showing as she tried to persuade him to spend some cash Lyn had left behind while she was in Bendigo. With the debts mounting, and Olivia suddenly unable to get her hands on any cash, she put the idea to him that they stage a robbery at his site. Jack reluctantly went along with it, but the plans began to fall apart when Stuart insisted that they question Jack, and Olivia’s cover was suddenly blown. Jack was shocked to find out that he’d been dating a cop, but she told him to just play along and she would get them both out of the predicament.

When Stuart and Olivia found out that electrician Darren Stark, who had a criminal record, had been working on Jack’s site, they thought they might have found their man. Olivia realised that he was the perfect scapegoat for her crimes and began to think she was in the clear. However, as Darren was found to have a concrete alibi, and Jack’s behaviour became more and more erratic, Olivia wondered how much longer she could keep her secret. Her relationship with Stuart was developing beyond colleagues as they attended the Police Ball together, but she continued to go clubbing with Jack. When Jack lost control of his car one morning on the way home, while on the phone to Olivia, it was the final straw. She managed to retrieve his phone from the crash site, and later went to the hospital to explain that they couldn’t see each other anymore.

Later on, Olivia and Stuart had to go to the hospital to charge Jack with driving whilst under the influence. The whole series of events made her decide to give up on her corrupt past and turn over a new leaf. She and Stuart finally gave in to their attraction and slept together, but his trust in her was too much and she was forced to confess everything. Stuart was left in an awkward situation, but ultimately he decided that he would have to report Olivia for her actions. She went and said a final goodbye to Jack at the pub, before meeting up with Stuart to do the same. She told him that she admired his integrity and thought that he would go on to be a great police officer.

Biography by Steve

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