.
Guest Character Profiles > Slade Westall Charlie Di Stefano

After deciding that it was time to move on from ex-husband Toadie, Melanie Pearson set up an online dating profile, where she quickly met a man named Bruce and arranged a date for that evening. After buying herself a new dress, Melanie waited for Bruce outside The 82 tram, only for him to text and explain that he had a flat tyre and was running late. As the tram was closing, and Bruce still hadn't turned up, Melanie began to walk home, only for a car to pull up next to her, full of kids who started shouting abuse at her. As one of them, Slade, knew her name and then mentioned Bruce, she realised that she'd been set up, but the car continued to follow her as she tried to get away. As Slade started shouting abuse at her, she shouted back that their mothers wouldn't be very proud of this behaviour, only for him to throw a cup of liquid muck over her from the car window. This incident was witnessed by Mackenzie and Haz, who were out walking Trevor the dog, and Haz managed to chase off the car as Mackenzie comforted a terrified Melanie.

A few weeks later, Slade and his mates had started causing trouble, spraying graffiti around the Lassiters complex, and were thrown out of Harolds one day by Haz Devkar, after they started tipping sugar all over the tables. When Haz went to report the incident, he was shown a picture of some kids who'd been caught running a red light, to see if they were the same ones, and he immediately recognised Slade as the guy who'd thrown the muck over Melanie. When Melanie then decided to report the incident to the police, a vengeful Slade went to Ramsay Street and sprayed graffiti all over her drinks van.

Unfortunately, this also meant that he'd spray graffiti on the image of David Tanaka, Melanie's partner in the van who had recently passed away. When David's grieving husband Aaron Brennan saw what had happened, he tracked down Slade and attacked him, fortunately being stopped by Sergeant Andrew Rodwell before he could do any harm. Ramsay Street resident JJ Varga-Murphy, who had attempted to confront Slade and his mates the previous day, also found himself targeted after he spotted them spraying the graffiti on the van and identified them for the police. Though JJ briefly enjoyed being the hero, he soon realised that he might have made a mistake when Slade spotted him at Lassiters and threatened him.

Slade and his gang continued to cause trouble in the area, throwing down nails in the Lassiters car park and smashing up the bus stop, with JJ and brother Dex worried that he was going to come after them next. Though JJ insisted that he was going to stand up to Slade and not show any fear, he was left terrified when he turned up at the school. He was quickly sent out of the building by school principal Jane Harris, and she later spoke to JJ, who explained that Slade had been intimidating him since he reported the Drinks Divas vandalism to the police. When JJ and Dex then went out to get some lunch, they were spotted by Slade and, as Dex promptly ran away, JJ remained to face him and received a beating. Terrified that it was going to happen again, JJ then stole a knife from Harolds Cafe during the lunch break, but was forced to hide it on top of the lockers when he was almost caught. When teacher Curtis Perkins then found the knife before JJ could retrieve it, the school went into lockdown and the police were called. Initially he said nothing, but the guilt eventually got to JJ and he told Andrew that he was responsible, then explained everything that had happened with Slade targeting him.

As Slade and his mates caused more problems, stealing from the cars in the Lassiters car park, they ran into JJ in the complex but as they started to threaten him again, they were stopped by Felix Rodwell, the younger brother of Senior Sergeant Andrew Rodwell. Felix had just been released from prison and easily scared off Slade and his mates, managing to do so again when they ran into each other on Power Road. Felix offered JJ advice on how to deal with his bullies, and also showed him how to give them a taste of their own medicine - putting a nail in one of the tyres on their car. Unfortunately, Slade then spotted Nell and Hugo Rebecchi walking along the road and decided to grab young Hugo and put him in the boot of the car before speeding off. After spending time joyriding around the area, they dumped the car - and Hugo - back on Power Road when they found that they had a flat tyre. After Hugo was rescued, and Slade's mates were caught and taken to the police station, Slade was looking for somewhere to hide out. Looking around the Eirini Rising worksite, he once again ran into Felix, who this time suggested that they could work together, rob the worksite and split the money, allowing them both to get out of town.

As Felix and Slade continued to meet up and fine tune the details of their plan, Harolds Cafe was broken into and trashed one night, with both Felix and Slade under suspicion for what had happened. Struggling to come up with an alibi, Felix decided to just keep quiet. As plans for the robbery were finalised, Felix and Slade met up, but were spotted by JJ, who was horrified that Felix would do a deal with someone like that. As Slade make a quick getaway, Felix explained to JJ that part of the deal with Slade was that he'd stay away from JJ and Dex, and would leave town as soon as the robbery was done. Unfortunately, the whole plan then became unstuck when Cara and Remi spotted Slade outside Grease Monkeys, and Cara performed a citizen's arrest. As Slade was then taken to the police station, and later refused bail, Felix realised that he was going to have to quickly come up with a new plan, but was in for a surprise when JJ offered to step in and take Slade's place.

Episodes Featured
8974, 8975, 8992, 8993, 8997, 9006, 9007, 9011, 9017