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Guest Character Profiles > Senior Sergeant Tony Thompson Damien Aylward

Senior Sergeant Tony Thompson 2023, 2024
Occupation: Senior Sergeant with Erinsborough Police

When it was revealed that several Erinsborough residents had covered up the death of Krista Sinclair a year earlier, they were all taken in and questioned by the police. When it came to questioning Paul Robinson - who had seemingly been the one to cover up Krista’s accidental death at the hands of Melanie Pearson - Sergeant Rodwell and Senior Sergeant Thompson learnt that Paul hadn’t actually done anything with the body. When he had gone to Lassiters hotel’s rooftop pool, where the accident had happened, he found that the body had gone, but Eden Shaw, Krista’s boyfriend who had been using her for money, was waiting. Eden told Paul that he’d dealt with the matter and that he wanted half a million dollars for his silence. The police were sceptical, but with Eden having disappeared once again, they were forced to take Paul’s word for it until they found Eden.

The following year, a hostage situation began to unfold at the Waterhole, when criminal Justin Ashton turned up, demanding some money that had been stolen by Holly Hoyland. As Thompson, as well as Andrew Rodwell, tried to work out how to deal with the situation, Andrew's brother, recently released prisoner Felix, snuck into the back of the building, putting his phone on the bar to allow the police to hear what was going on. Felix then pretended that he was a kitchen hand who'd been hiding out back and joined the other hostages, including Holly, her stepmum Susan, and Paul. As the situation dragged on into the following morning, matters came to a head when it was revealed that Andrew's wife, Wendy and her friend, Quinn, had been hiding out in the bar's office. As there was a complicated history between Andrew, Wendy and Quinn, Andrew was horrified as he heard what was going on and briefly froze, before instructing the officers to storm the building. Fortunately, Felix had managed to disarm Justin and everyone made it out to safety.

Following the siege, and with the worsening state of his marriage, Andrew's behaviour at work started to cause concern. Thompson approached him and, aware that he'd turned down the offer of counselling, suggested that he should take a couple of days of personal leave, after learning that Andrew had been very harsh on a junior colleague. Andrew insisted that he was fine and would apologise, but when he later physically assaulted a drug dealer who'd been brought in, pushing him against a wall and suggested he deserved to die for selling drugs to teenagers, Thompson stepped in and separated them. He then told Andrew that he was suspended.

A couple of months later, with Andrew away on leave, Tony was approached by Krista Sinclair, who was worried about her best friend, Sebastian Metcalfe. As Krista attempted to help Sebastian to overcome his drink and drugs problem, her boyfriend, Leo Tanaka, was worried that she might be tempted to use again and, after finding out that a loan shark was on Seb's tail, Leo threatened Seb into leaving town. Though Seb sent Krista a text a couple of days after disappearing, saying that he was safe and well and back in Sydney, she was worried when his bag was found in the bushes at Lassiters the following week. After finding out what Leo had done, Krista only became more worried that something wasn't right and decided to go to the police and report Seb as a missing person. When he found out that Seb had already texted Krista to say he was in Sydney, Tony explained that he wasn't actually a missing person and the police couldn't do anything. However, when Leo mentioned that they were friends with Andrew, Tony agreed to see what he could do. He later let Krista know that they'd been in touch with Seb, and were going to return his bag to him, but he'd asked them not to tell Krista where he was, adding that he didn't want her to contact him again.

Trivia Notes
• Damien Aylward previously appeared in Neighbours in 2009 as Johnno Brewer and in 2013 as Harry Austin
• This character was credited as Senior Sergeant Thompson in 2023 and given the first name of Tony when he appeared again in 2024

Episodes Featured
8939, 9119, 9127, 9158