Troubled child star began taking ice when he was acting on Home and Away as a 15-year-old - as he fights to be released from prison

 Felix Dean has fallen hard and fast since his days as a Home and Away child star

Home and Away child star Felix Dean was using methamphetamine while he was on the soap opera as a 15-year-old. 

Dean began smoking cannabis as a 14-year-old and moved onto ‘ice’ within twelve months, at first inhaling the potent drug and then injecting it. 

The actor’s troubled childhood was outlined in court on Tuesday as he faced sentencing for a string of bizarre crimes across Sydney.

Dean was just ten when he got his big break on Home and Away, acting alongside Ada Nicodemou as her on-screen son VJ Patterson from 2007 to 2014. 

Central Local Court heard he had already been acting for three years before joining the program and was ‘constantly surrounded’ by adults, creating a ‘quite different and unusual experience’.

Solicitor Elliot Rowe said Dean’s early fame on Home and Away had been a ‘double-edged sword’ throughout his childhood. 

His drug use had turned into ‘a long-standing addiction to quite debilitating substances’ and led to ‘the nonsensical behaviour that he was engaging in.’

Mr Rowe said Dean had first been locked up for 86 days last year before being released into the care of his mother under strict bail conditions. 

He had then spent 37 days at Gordon Private Hospital and afterwards was in effective home detention until his addiction got out of hand again in June. 

‘That’s when things have really fallen off the wagon,’ Mr Rowe said. 

Dean, now 24, has been back in prison since October after he attacked a tobacconist with a hammer – the fourth time he had been arrested in two years.

He has pleaded guilty to assaulting police, affray, assault with intent to rob, being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence, two counts of recklessly damaging property and shoplifting.

Mr Rowe is asking that Dean be allowed to leave jail and enter a residential rehabilitation facility. 

Court records refer to Dean’s recent addresses at Erskineville, Redfern, Randwick, Kellyville and a Harris Park rehab clinic.  

Child star Felix Dean began taking ice when he was a 15-year-old working on Home and Away. Today he is on remand at John Morony prison. Dean played VJ Patterson in Home and Away from 2007 to 2014. He is pictured with on-screen mother Ada Nicodemou

Felix Dean has pleaded guilty to assaulting police, affray, assault with intent to rob, eing armed with intent to commit an indictable offence, two counts of recklessly damaging property and larceny

When Felix Dean was last arrested on charges of assaulting a tobacconist with a hammer he was living in this row of terraces in inner-city Surry Hills . He pleaded guilty to being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence in relation to that office

Dean’s most recent troubles with the law began on May 23, 2020 when he booked into room 3708 of the Meriton Suites Hotel on Kent Street in Sydney. 

The next morning after checking out Dean drove his Subaru WRX sedan straight through an automatic security gate in the car park, causing $7,624.93 in damage.

Dean, who made not attempt to report what happened to staff, pleaded guilty to intentionally damaging property and was placed on a nine-month conditional release order.

At that time police noted in a statement of facts Dean had faced nine previous charges for offences ranging from assault to larceny. He was living in an Airbnb and receiving $1,000 from Centrelink.

Dean’s next serious brush with the law came when he attacked an Uber driver and smashed another man’s window early last year.

Dean’s most recent troubles with the law began on May 23, 2020 when he booked into room 3708 of the Meriton Suites Hotel (pictured)  on Kent Street in Sydney. The next morning after checking out he deliberately drove through a security gate, causing $7,624.93 in damage

Felix Dean’s recent home was the maximum security Parklea Correctional Centre (pictured) in Sydney’s north west where he  has been incarcerated since October last year

By then he was homeless and staying sporadically at hotels around Sydney, while the NSW Trustee & Guardian had been appointed to control his finances and was paying him an allowance of $150 a week.

That body also paid for his accommodation, while he retained an investment property at Botany which was leased and rent of $330 went into his trustee account each week.  

Dean had been drinking with a friend in a park behind King Street at Newtown when a resident saw him urinating outside his unit shortly before 9pm on January 6. 

When the resident called out, ‘Come on mate, people live here, what are you doing?’ Dean laughed and responded, ‘Do you want a fight?’

After the man dialled Triple Zero and showed the unemployed actor his phone screen, Dean picked up a bottle and smashed one of his windows. 

A distinctive leg tattoo helped police identify Felix Dean as the assailant who bashed an Uber driver on a busy suburban street. The tattoo shows an attractive young woman with a heart on her cheek holding an ace of spades and a long-nailed finger to her lips in a ‘shhh’ gesture

About an hour later Dean was standing on a footpath in nearby Erskineville Road when an Uber driver drove past and turned into Wilson Street. 

Dean ran in front of the vehicle, slapped the bonnet, opened the car door and began throwing punches at the driver’s head and face.

‘Get out of the car you f***king c***,’ Dean told the driver, who kicked him in the abdomen, closed the door and drove away. 

The attack on the Uber driver was captured on CCTV and Dean pleaded guilty in May last year to assault with intent to rob and intentionally destroying property. 

Dean was nominated for Best Young Actor at the 2008 and 2009 Inside Soap Awards For his portrayal of VJ. He disappeared from the spotlight altogether after the gig 

Dean referred to himself as a ‘work in progress’ in a social media post made in August. ‘From the good life to struggle street to finding my feet,’ he wrote on Facebook. ‘Underestimate me at least that makes two of us.’ He was recently in Parklea prison (pictured)

Dean’s next run-in with police came on the afternoon of September 18 at Paddington when he failed to comply with a Covid-19 direction. 

He then assaulted a senior constable by kicking the officer in the leg. He entered guilty pleas to those two offences on Tuesday. 

After that incident Dean was granted bail on strict conditions including that he abide by a 6pm curfew and be subjected to random drug and alcohol testing.  

Next, Dean was arrested near the TSG Tobacconist in Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills,  shortly before midnight on October 11.

Police originally alleged Dean attacked the tobacconist with a hammer and assaulted another man after stealing a iPhone from the shop. 

The tobacconist suffered minor head injuries and was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics. 

Dean was then refused bail and has been in custody ever since.  

Dean left Home and Away as a 17-year-old when he was replaced in the long-running soap by Matthew Little. At the time his on-screen mother Nicodemou said she viewed Dean as a ‘surrogate son’ after their years spent together on the show. The pair is pictured

On Tuesday he entered guilty pleas to being armed with a weapon to commit an indictable offence, affray and larceny (shoplifting) in relation to the tobacconist incident. 

Police withdrew a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault.

Dean referred to himself as a ‘work in progress’ in a social media post made in August, before his two most recent arrests.

‘From the good life to struggle street to finding my feet,’ he wrote on Facebook. ‘Underestimate me at least that makes two of us.’   

Dean has not had an acting credit since leaving Home and Away as a 17-year-old when he was replaced in the long-running soap by Matt Little.

At the time his on-screen mother Nicodemou said she viewed Dean as a ‘surrogate son’ after their years spent together on the show. 

Dean was nominated for Best Young Actor at the 2008 and 2009 Inside Soap Awards For his portrayal of VJ Patterson. He disappeared from the spotlight altogether after the gig. 

Magistrate Alison Viney will determine Dean’s fate on Tuesday afternoon.