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
