Liam Murphy
Liam Murphy (2009-2013)
Axle Whitehead
Episodes: 4804, 4838–4865, 4916–4917, 4939–5713
Marital Status: Chelsea Hutchins (divorced); Bianca Scott (2012, divorced)
Children: Ash Murphy
Occupation: Musician, Guitar Tutor, Bartender
Liam was first seen as the performer of a concert that Annie, Jai, Geoff, Nicole and Belle attended.
He was interviewed after the concert by Belle and was pleased to realise that she was a fan of his music and complimented her. After the interview had wrapped up Liam asked if they were ‘off the record’ and when Belle confirmed that they were he held out a small bag of drugs and offered her some. Belle rolled in several hours later, clearly trashed after having ‘a few drinks with the band’.
He next turned up when Belle was in rehab after being admitted himself. Belle introduced herself to him and Liam remembered her, beginning a friendship. They were able to support each other through rehab with liam confiding in her about his wife leaving him and banning him from seeing his child. Belle was offered money by her editor to take pictures of Liam but refused. She later did take pictures of him with his son and asked Annie to get them developed as a surprise but the next day they ended up in the paper with a story that she was seeing Liam in rehab. Liam was furious at what he saw as her betrayal and she tried to put things right but Liam did his own digging and found that the boy at the photoshop had confessed to selling her photographs and he and Belle made friends again.
A chat with Liam convinced Belle that she was ready to head home. Within days of her release, Liam turned up in the bay to ask Belle to help him convince his wife to let him see her son. Shortly after another story appeared about Liam and Belle, causing his wife to end things and Liam to lose his recording contract. With nowhere else to go he moved in with Belle but clashed with Aden who thought he was no good for her. He later confided in Belle that his marriage was over and that he wanted a relationship with her but a reluctant Belle asked him to back off. After things went wrong between her and Aden again and she worried Liam had overdosed, Belle agreed to a tentative relationship with him but when she found him on drugs she broke things off. She tried to get him to the hospital but he was spooked by a photographer and ended up on the roof. Aden managed to talk him down and he was taken away in an ambulance as Belle admitted she was still in love with Aden.
Liam turned up at Belle’s house a few months later claiming he was off the drugs and wanted to apologise and was shocked to discover from Nicole she was dying. He went to the hospital but left without seeing Belle, feeling he was in the way. He turned up at her funeral on drugs and spent the night with Nicole before disappearing into the night again.
With his marriage over and his career in tatters, Liam decided to move to Summer Bay permanently, hoping being around people who knew him would keep him on the straight and narrow. He bought an old restaurant, planning to convert it, and offered Romeo, who he had given a lift into town, a job there. He tried to build bridges with Aden and Nicole but his and Nicole’s first conversation was awkward and when he later tried to talk to Aden and tell him he knew he had to face the consequences of what he’d done, he received a punch for his troubles. He found out that the old restaurant needed a lot more work than he’d expected and told Romeo to take a better job when he was offered one. He and Nicole got on better after she confided in him about Sid and after spending the day together they had an intimate encounter on the beach. He came round to cook her dinner while she was studying and they ended up getting intimate again. She inspired him to write a song and, after she made a joke about him impressing her, he serenaded her with it in the surf club, confirming their status as a couple.
He and Aden tried to make an effort to get on for Nicole’s sake but when he failed to set the alarm, causing Nicole to miss the start of one of her exams, Aden persuaded him to break up with her until exams were over. When the break-up seemed to cause Nicole more stress, he agreed they should see each other one night a week. He went to the city for a recording session but after it was cancelled he returned to find Romeo and Xavier using his house for a Halloween party. He realised that Ned Re, a dodgy acquaintance of his, was on drugs and escorted him from the building, then returned to find he had spiked a drink with drugs and caused Romeo to collapse. Aden was disgusted when Liam refused to call an ambulance for him, worried everyone would think he was involved, and persuaded Aden to take him to the hospital instead. Afterwards, he cleared the air with Romeo and Nicole, telling them he was trying to change.
When Liam discovered his new home needed some serious rewiring, he accepted Nicole’s offer to move into Roman’s old house, even though it meant sharing with Aden. He began giving guitar lessons to try and raise money but felt increasingly frustrated that Nicole wouldn’t sleep with him. He arranged a surprise dinner for her to celebrate the end of her exams but instead she spent the evening at the surf club with Aden. After further arguments about the status of their relationship, and Liam clashing with Aden becaise he wouldn’t take Nicole to her school formal, Liam told Nicole he loved her but she seemed confused by the declaration and made a hasty exit. On the night of her school formal, he slept with one of his students, Poppie, who he had turned down the previous week, before dashing round to be with Nicole. However, when she found out she broke up with him. After turning down her offer of a repeat performance, Liam threw Poppie out of the house when she turned up with drugs before spending time on the farm with Martha and Bambang. He approached Nicole and asked her to get back with him and even asked Aden for help. When he saw them kissing, he took one of the pills Poppy left behind before checking himself into hospital and calling the police, being charged with drug possession. While high, he briefly met Martha and told her she was beautiful, apologising the next day when he went to see Gina to explain about his lapse. He made his peace with Aden and Nicole but felt like a gooseberry when they tried to spend time together at the house and uncomfortable when Aden asked him for relationship advice so decided to move out.
After he spent a day helping Martha out on the farm in an enthusiastic but not particularly competent manner, she offered to let him move in there, then slept with him. Liam was bemused, especially when she refused to discuss the encounter the next morning, and slightly concerned when Alf warned him Martha was still fragile. After Martha reassured him, he was not exactly unhappy about her desire for a casual relationship but was unnerved by the way she seemed to veer between wanting to spend time with him and being annoyed at him. He considered giving guitar lessons at the farm but at Martha’s suggestion he managed to persuade Gina to employ him as a guitar tutor instead. He was shocked when Martha told him she might be pregnant and admitted to Romeo that he wasn’t sure he was up to being a father before she told him it was a false alarm. When his “classic” car broke down on the way in to work, Martha ended up giving him a lift home in her ute then had sex with him in it, only to reject him again when they went back inside. He told her he couldn’t deal with her constant mood swings and ended up in an argument with Tony who assumed he was at fault. Martha offered to help him choose a new car and, after taking her advice not to be talked into buying something cool but impractical, he opted for a motorbike instead. However, he then decided to move out, saying their friendship would be ruined if he stayed, only to change his mind when Xavier moved in and he began to suspect he was on drugs after he had tried to hide a shoebox from them. He even shared his suspicions with Gina until Martha showed him the money Xavier had been hiding and revealed it was from Hugo. When she threw herself at him again, he moved out. When he called round for breakfast a few days later to find her even more out of sorts, he told Alf that Martha wasn’t as over Hugo as she appeared.
When Liam was asked to write a song for the school play, he found himself working closely with Ruby and was impressed by her talent. He ended up joining her on stage to perform the song when she had stage fright. He later gave Romeo some support over his break-up with Annie and advised Nicole over her concerns about her relationship with Aden, dropping round for a pep-talk and an impromptu game of ping pong after he left town. He asked Ruby to continue collaborating with him on his music but was thrown by Xavier’s jealousy, warning him off her, and asked Ruby to set him straight before rumours spread. When he went to see Nicole about it, she let slip that she thought Ruby had a crush on him. He sought advice from Alf without mentioning Ruby’s name and was advised to stay away from the student, but when she offered to end the partnership he told her they weren’t doing anything wrong and should continue. He also gave Romeo some insights into addiction during his problems with Jill. He was concerned when he overheard Ruby saying she couldn’t stop thinking about him and even more so when Nicole claimed she didn’t like his music, which caused him to doubt his ability. Ruby admitted Nicole had been covering and she was attracted to him but insisted she could keep things professional. He tried to break up a fight between Xavier and Romeo at school and ended up being shoved to the ground. He supervised the pair in detention and mentioned to Tony he was taking a teacher course. He then had a run-in with Sid over their shared history with Nicole.
He arranged a recording session for himself and Ruby which he only just managed to get through because of his worries about his past. When Bianca Scott arrived in town, Liam seemed instantly taken with her and despite some abrasive initial words they shared a drink at the surf club. They were both thrown to find they were working together at the school but soon did research on each other. He insisted Ruby come out for dinner with him to discuss strategies for their singing career but when Bianca turned up with April and Xavier he spent most of the night flirting with her instead. He arranged for he and Ruby to sing at the opening of Angelo’s restaurant but also invited Bianca along to help do the place up. This caused problems with Ruby, who still had a crush on him and ended up kissing him. He cut all ties with her and admitted to Bianca what had been going on but refused to report her. Charlie confronted him but believed his story that nothing had happened; however, he then gave in to Ruby’s begging to be friends again. Worried that Ruby might continue drinking, he told Charlie what had been going on. When Ruby was caught buying alcohol off Indigo, he felt guilty for letting the situation get out of hand.
He kissed Bianca during an argument and, when she hit him at school, Gina sentenced them both to catalogue the library. Instead, they ended up sleeping together in there. They had dinner together at his house and agreed to ask each other three questions: Liam asked Bianca if she was still in love with her ex-fiancé Vittorio and was disappointed when she admitted she was. After he told Ruby the recording people were only interested in him, Nicole brought her to the house drunk. He reluctantly agreed to let her stay there and sober up, but when Bianca turned up, having earlier accused him of stealing her phone, Liam agreed with her that they needed to call Charlie and stressed to Ruby that she needed to let go of her feelings for him. Alf then gave him Bianca’s phone told him, which had been handed in at the surf club, and when he answered a call he found it was Vittorio saying he was coming to Summer Bay.
Liam told Bianca they shouldn’t see each other until she was sure how she felt about Vittorio. When Vittorio hadn’t turned up after several days, they had lunch together and he asked her out to dinner. Bianca cancelled claiming she was ill but in reality Vittorio had turned up and Liam saw Bianca kissing him. He resigned and disappeared on his motorbike for several weeks, sending Bianca a message asking her to call him back if she wanted to be with him, before turning up with his new girlfriend Nina Bailey, who bore a stark resemblance to Bianca. He made a point of kissing her in front of Bianca at the school but wasn’t bothered when she flirted with Romeo. When the two new couples ended up taking part in a rubbish collection, Liam and Vittorio got very competitive with each other. Observing them, Nina quickly realised his heart wasn’t in the relationship and left town.
Liam got his job back at the school and suggested Romeo and Indigo organise a students’ informal, quickly being roped in as a chaperone. April asked him to give her a guitar lesson, causing him to meet Bianca’s mother Joanna, but although he felt he’d made a good impression she told him to stay away from Bianca. When Bianca called him on the fact he’d been making negatives remarks about Joanna, he told both her and April he was going to stay away from their family. He tried to pull out of the chaperoning duties but Nicole and Romeo convinced him he should be there for the students. At the event, he went off with Bianca and they shared a kiss but she still refused to leave Vittorio. He turned down an opportunity to use footage of the kiss to break them up and turned up at the wedding. Halfway through the service, Bianca halted things and ran to Liam and they rode off on his motorbike.
On returning to town, they set up camp in a shack. He invited Romeo round for a visit and was surprised when he turned up with a large group of friends. He helped Gina and Bianca investigate the theft of chemicals from school and realised Xavier had been researching them. When it became clear April had stolen the chemicals, he advised Bianca to let April’s father handle it. He was hired to sing at a singles’ night at Angelo’s restaurant but was drowned out by the River Boys’ jeering, although his mood was improved slightly when he realised Bianca had been trying to seduce him all day. He continued working on his album and, when Bianca worried they were all about other women, told her she was the inspiration for all of them. He gave Romeo and Casey a detention for fighting in the corridor and then hit a block writing songs and went for a drink with Sid and John instead, leaving Bianca worried he might have a drink problem. When Romeo confided in him about sleeping with Ruby, he told him he needed to make things really clear to her and later told Ruby it was up to Romeo whether he told Indigo or not. He gave more advice to Romeo after Indigo found out about the fling, annoying Bianca when she found out he’d kept quiet about it. He gave Dexter and April advice when they tried to help Ruby out with a blog on the subject.
He helped with Bianca’s attempts to celebrate April’s birthday. He was concerned by April’s behaviour when she went into a panic after he confiscated her pens and then blamed him for Bianca having an electric shock. He was upset when Bianca moved out and declined an offer to move in with her at Irene’s, moving in with Angelo and Roo instead. He arranged a night with Bianca but spent the evening playing cards with Angelo and Roo and forgot about it and when he finally turned up she was annoyed to find he’d been drinking. He found out about April’s OCD from Dexter and tried to talk to her about it, also helping Irene and Bianca investigate. He was dropped by his recording contract and bought some drugs off Heath. This resulted in him being late for work, where he told Gina he’d taken a sleeping bill and overslept, but he went back to Heath for more anyway.
When Roo offered him an unpaid gig at the surf carnival, he turned her down and was annoyed to found out Bianca had suggested it, also brutally telling Summer her guitar lessons were pointless and then telling April people should have been straight with her. He was caught high on drugs by Bianca and promised to stay off them. He refused to let Dexter draw him off the subject in a Music class, trying to commit himself to being a teacher, but when he took over a History class about the Eureka Stockade he threw aside the set assignment and told the class to plan a terrorist attack on Summer Bay. When Miles and Gina found out, they were both annoyed with him, prompting him to take drugs in school and get caught by Gina, who sent him home. Bianca tried to help him, throwing his drugs away, but he kept scoring and was fired from his job and banned from teaching after turning up to his meeting with the inspector on drugs. He ignored Bianca’s attempts to support him, heading off to score, and then turned up at school to see her whilst high, being seen by most of the students before Bianca and Gina ordered him to go. He turned up on a cliff top, where April, Xavier, Dexter and Ruby called Bianca fearing he was going to jump, and was eventually found in the street by Gina who took him home. When Romeo tried to help him by taking him to the hospital, he ended up trying to hit him and, after going round Bianca’s and being refused entry, he left town to go to rehab. After receiving a visit from April, he met Bianca and told her he needed to get better for himself and she shouldn’t wait for him.
He returned to find Bianca had been raped and tried to support her. When April claimed Heath was responsible, Liam went to confront him but was shocked when Heath revealed he’d slept with Bianca and angrily told her that Heath was his dealer. Charlie and Bianca asked him to testify against Heath and he agreed after one of the River Boys, Mick, threatened Bianca and April but was then beaten up. Bianca offered to let him stay with her while he recovered and he admitted to Irene that he blamed her but managed to move past it. He approached Gina about doing after hours tutoring at the school but was told it was impossible.
He later tried to support Bianca when she started having flashbacks to the rape and went with her when she said she’d seen her attacker but the man had gone. Bianca was later run down by the man, suffering minor injuries, and John told Liam it was Dean O’Mara, the brother of Xavier’s new girlfriend Kelly. After getting Kelly to tell him which way Dean was heading, Liam tricked him into pulling over and then beat him in a fight before handing him over to the police. His and Bianca’s relationship remained tense and she panicked after asking him to stay the night and told him to leave. He helped convince her to see a counsellor but after her first session she broke up with him. He went to confront her counsellor, Doctor Pierson, but Bianca told him it was her decision.
He was further upset to see her talking with Heath but accepted a job working for Brax at the restaurant. When he heard Bianca had been trapped when the school collapsed, he went to see if she was all right but was upset to see her joking with Heath and ended up in an argument with her. After April chided him for his behaviour, he asked Gypsy, newly arrived in town, to pass on a letter to Bianca for him. He met her at the hospital while visiting Irene, who was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and they agreed to an amicable split and he was disappointed to see her with Heath and Darcy not long after. He tried to help out when Gypsy and Bianca were harrassed by a patron at the restaurant and later consoled Gypsy when she was stood up by her boyfriend Mark, as well as looking after Lily when she avoided meeting him. When a singer he’d arranged to play at the restaurant cancelled, Gypsy and Lily persuaded him to play instead and he and Gypsy got on well after the gig. He was pleased to hear Bianca was jealous but when he spoke to her she snapped at him and started eyeing up Heath.
When he went round the Braxton house to drop the float off and found Bianca there in her dressing gown, he assumed something had happened and ended up having sex with Gypsy on the beach. Gypsy’s boyfriend Mark later turned up and threatened him over their fling. The next day, he spoke to Gypsy, admiting he’d used her to try and get over Bianca, and helped her realise she wouldn’t have slept with him if she was serious about Mark. He wound up Brax when his relationship with Charlie made front page news. When he heard April had collapsed because of drug use and Colleen claimed Heath was responsible, Liam went to confront him only for Bianca to step in and reveal Heath was innocent. He later commented to Miles that you know when a relationship is over. He saw Harvey Ryan sabotaging the Blaxland and told Romeo but left town before he could confirm the story to Alf.
He was later involved in an accident when he drove into Charlie and Brax’s vehicle when he went through an intersection and ended up in hospital. He came round to find Bianca by his side and was told Heath had hit him. He recalled seeing Charlie and Brax but Bianca told him she had been in the car with Heath and he realised she’d slept with him again. He insisted on being taken off his painkillers, fearing they were making him hallucinate, but had reason to feel better when he got back with Bianca. He moved into the beach house with her but was bemused both by the fact she no longer seemed to be friends with Charlie and her wanting him to give up his job at the restaurant. He went to buy a new car but was shocked when Bianca tried to get him to buy a family car. When Heath wound him up about it, he ended up buying another bike instead. Bianca convinced him to put it up for sale but he was confused when Brax made him redundant and when he realised Bianca and Charlie had fallen out. Charlie admitted she and Brax had been in the car and Bianca had covered for them and Liam was annoyed she had lied to him. He took his job and bike back and moved out to the caravan park but then surprised Bianca at the surf club and proposed to her, which she accepted. After stopping by the caravan park to say goodbye to Miles, they went to tell his parents in the city.
Returning in the aftemath of Charlie’s death, they tried and failed to persuade a drunken Brax to attend her funeral. They discovered Charlie had arranged an engagement party for them and went ahead with it, but it was marred slightly by Bianca’s discovery that Heath and April were seeing each other. Afterwards, Liam gave Heath a shock by telling him April had been a virgin, although Heath got his own back by being the first to find out that Irene had been hospitalised with a heart condition. He was concerned by Bianca’s opposition to the relationship, wondering if she was jealous.
Liam asked Romeo to be his best man and went on a bucks night consisting of a game of cards at Angelo’s restaurant. Heath gatecrashed it and beat Liam at a hand but Liam retorted that he had the girl. As he was leaving, he saw Heath and April kissing in Heath’s car and realised that, despite what she’d promised Bianca, they were still together, using the information to blackmail April into admitting Bianca had accidentally said Heath’s name instead of his at the hen night.
Liam was bothered by a newspaper interview with Chelsea, which mocked his remarriage and his lack of contact with Ash, and by the presence of a paparazzo, who got Liam in trouble with the police when Liam smashed his camera after he presented him with a packet of talcum powder he pretended was drugs, having to be bailed out by Bianca. As he waited on the beach prior to the wedding, the paparazzo increased his fears by showing him photos of Bianca meeting Heath earlier in the day. However, Bianca turned up at the last minute and they were married.
Liam was delighted when, shortly after, Bianca learned she was pregnant. He organised a karaeoke night at Angelo’s to help Irene but was unhappy when she started singing country and western around the house. When his comments on the subject upset her, he made it up to her by giving her singing lessons. Bianca learned he had been keeping his caravan as a bolt hole and convinced him to move the rest of his things into the beach house. Romeo helped him and they chatted about giving things up for your wife. He arranged a recording session for Irene for her birthday and was annoyed when she gave most of it to her singing coach Eddie Trumper, who he mistrusted. Eddie asked him to look at his demo CD and he realised he had stolen some of his lyrics. He confronted him with the fact that pages had been ripped out of his lyric book and ended up smashing Eddie’s guitar.
He and Bianca were thrown into turmoil when a scan revealed her pregnancy was further along than they thought, meaning Heath was the father. Liam insisted they kept quiet about it and was furious when Bianca was threatened after being caught in the crossfire of Heath’s pursuit of Trent “Sully” Sullivan, having a go at him about it. When he walked in on Bianca explaining things to Darcy, he realised Heath knew. On learning that April had told him, he was furious and cut her out of their lives, with him and Bianca moving in with Leah. However, their attempt with having a picnic together was derailed when Heath asked Liam to work while he looked after Darcy. Liam was unhappy to then see Bianca spending time with Darcy and, when he found out Heath had asked Bianca to dump Liam for him, quit his job.
Bianca suggested they leave town to get away from Heath. When he saw Heath and Bianca feeling the baby kick together, he was horrified and admitted he didn’t want the baby but after cooling off assured her they’d make it work. However, he refused to compromise with Heath. Heath hired lawyer Hayley O’Connor to try and get access and Liam put his foot in it by suggesting Heath wasn’t the father, nearly causing Heath to demand an unnecessary DNA test before he agreed to back off and withdraw his objection to them leaving. However, at the last minute, Liam, after witnessing her reluctance to say goodbye to April and to a lesser extent Heath, realised Bianca didn’t really want to leave. Seeing no future for their marriage, Liam broke up with her and she moved back in with Irene and April. Liam attempted to drown his sorrows but Brax stopped him and made him manager of the restaurant.
Not long after, Liam discovered Hayley had a drug problem and objected to Brax terrorising he. He took her drugs off her and threw them in the sea, then offered to help her go cold turkey, holing up with her in a motel room while she went through withdrawals but backed off when she kissed him. However, when she was tempted to use as a result, he ended up sleeping with her. He felt he’d taken advantage of her but also felt she understood him and was annoyed when Brax scared her off. He went to hospital to check on Bianca when she was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and ended up getting into a fight with Heath, which convinced him to go home. Leah told him Hayley was looking for him and also that Brax’s opposition was because Hayley had got Jake Pirovic out of jail, which led to him killing Charlie. Liam rejected her but when he found her walking out into the ocean he stopped her and promised to help.
The pair embarked on a relationship, which floundered slightly when he found out she was still working for Heath. When he heard Bianca had had the baby and was in a coma, he took her some flowers but left them with Irene without seeing her. He refused Hayley’s suggestion he leave town with her, suggesting they build a life in the Bay instead. He got drunk while Hayley was away and discovered a bag of cocaine in her drawer. He left it untouched in the hope she would resist. When she ended up taking some, he took the bag off her and ended up taking some himself and having a seizure. Leah took him to hospital where he was shocked to discover the state Bianca was in, suffering from post-natal psychosis and thinking she was being held prisoner. He walked out on Hayley, feeling he wouldn’t be able to stay clean if he was around her. He moved back in with Leah but Brax fired him from the restaurant. He was shocked when Bianca, suffering from post-natal psychosis, turned up at the house, believing she hadn’t had a baby and she and Liam were still together. He managed to alert April and helped Sid and Heath take her back to the hospital. He later visited Bianca where they managed to draw a line under their marriage and become friends.
Irene hired Liam to help out at the Diner, where he got talking to Indigo over their respective marriage break-ups and ended up throwing his ring in the sea. Brax agreed to rehire him at Angelo’s and he hired Indigo as his assistant. He filled her in on Romeo’s reasons for avoiding her after Sid warned him off but Indigo went for a ride with Liam instead of meeting Romeo anyway. The pair became good friends, prompting a jealous reaction from Romeo who angrily hurled abuse at them both in Angelo’s to the point where Liam had to throw him out. Romeo asked him to stay away from Indi but instead they ended up sharing a kiss after he helped her out with a group of River Boys who were hassling her. He tried to avoid her but Indi told him she’d tell Romeo it was over and asked if they had a chance. He drove her home and they shared another kiss. The following day, they left work and went to a motel where they slept together. They then discovered that Ruby had cut the brakes on Indi’s car and that Dexter, who had been driving it, had been badly injured in a crash. Liam supported Indi and they continued sleeping together prompting Romeo, who had been staying with Leah, to move out of the house. When VJ found out the reason, he took Romeo’s side and had a go at Liam. He was left out of the loop when Dexter recovered consciousness and grilled by Sid. When he overheard Indi commenting on how confused she was, he asked Romeo to stay away from her but, when he saw she was missing him, went back to Romeo and admitted he was wrong, prompting Romeo to suggest they all try and be friends. When he tried to arrange a date she pulled out and then went surfing with Romeo. Feeling she would never feel the same way about him as she did Romeo, Liam put an end to the relationship, convincing her they were better off as friends.He still had to cope with bad attitude from VJ but when he helped VJ and Jett, whose mum had been a fan of his, to bond and spoke about making up for things you’d done wrong, VJ took responsibility for breaking a vase even though Liam was willing to take the blame.
When Indi told him Sid hadn’t come home, Liam went looking for him and found him sitting in his car drunk. He took Sid back to his place to sober up and convinced him to be there for his family. He tried to intervene in an altercation between Romeo and John and ended up being punched by Romeo. When he saw Romeo training hard, he realised he was on steroids but Romeo reacted angrily when he confronted him. He advised Indi that she couldn’t let Romeo think they’d get back together if he gave the steroids up but not long after he learned from Sid that they’d reconciled and that Heath had supplied the steroids. He later spoke to Jett, who was blaming himself for making John and Gina’s marriage problems worse, and let John know how he was feeling. He also gave a live performance at the surf carnival after party after Harvey made a mess of playing DJ.
When Bianca’s son Rocco died and Natalie told him she was buying prescription drugs from Adam Sharpe, Liam tried to put a stop to it and went round her house to throw her supply away. He confronted Adam and agreed to help him out by organising a party at his house in return for him staying away from Bianca but Adam didn’t uphold his side of the bargain and Bianca refused to go with him when he tried to get her to leave the house, prompting him to go to Heath for help. After Bianca cut ties with Adam, Liam tried to play peacemaker between her and Heath.
He was initially in favour of Leah seeing Adam’s son Jamie until it became obvious he was becoming obsessed with her. He joined her in confronting Jamie when the Diner was vandalised but Adam claimed Jamie was with him at the time. He went along to Adam’s party in Leah’s place and made her excuses to Jamie. Searching the house, he found a photo of Leah and VJ that Jamie had photoshopped himself into and protected VJ when Jamie became aggressive with him on the beach, helping the pair leave town. Jett told him he’d got a message from VJ saying he was in danger but Liam quickly realised Jamie had sent it and told Jett and John. He acted as MC at Roo and Harvey’s wedding reception and calmed Sid down when he got angry about Dexter keeping his seizures from him. Adam asked him to get a boat for Jamie and his friends to go on a fishing trip, threatening to go back to Bianca if he didn’t comply. Liam went along with it and learned from Natalie that Heath was going with Jamie.
When he saw Jamie in town soon afterwards, Jamie told him that Heath hadn’t shown up and Liam shared the news with Brax and Kyle. After Adam had had Jamie try to kill Heath, Liam went along with a charade where Brax pretended to fire him and then let Jamie overhear them saying Leah was in Mangrove River, allowing them to trick Adam into making a confession. He snapped at Jett when he pestered him for information about VJ and Leah. He was annoyed when Brax installed Kyle at Angelo’s but Kyle surprised him by doing a good job. He then received another shock when Bianca asked for a divorce. He admitted to Natalie that he saw signing the papers as a sign that another chapter of his life was over and he had nothing to show for it but ultimately he signed. He gave Jett advice before an underage disco and recruited Sasha and Rosie to make Jett look popular by dancing with him.
However, Liam felt affronted when Heath took charge of the restaurant while Brax was away, leaving him washing dishes while he made a mess of the front of house, then goading Liam into hitting him. Although Liam apologised the next day, Heath demoted him and made himself manager, worrying Liam since he had started sending money to Ash in an attempt to reconnect with him. Liam began being as unhelpful as possible at work, not doing anything unless instructed and leaving Heath floundering, until Kyle called him out on it. Liam then began taking money from the till, justifying it as what he should be earning, especially when he helped Brax put the restaurant back in order on his return only for Brax to ignore his request to be reinstated as manager. Kyle found out and initially agreed to keep quiet but when Liam refused to stop Kyle refused to work with him. When Brax questioned him, Liam admitted the truth and was fired. Liam posted the money to Ash and rode out of town.
Romeo tracked Liam down on a clifftop, where he had been going every day, and put his troubles in perspective when he revealed he had stage four cancer, convincing him to return to town. Liam stood by Romeo as he underwent chemotherapy, covering for him when Dexter saw them together at the hospital and annoying Sid in supporting Romeo’s decision to stop treatment and keep his condition from Indi. Liam decided he should be with Ash and told Romeo and Natalie he was going to leave town. He gave Brax money to cover what he’d stolen and stopped by Bianca and Heath’s engagement party to say his goodbyes to Bianca, April and Irene. On his way out of the area, he picked up Romeo, who had decided to see out the rest of his cancer away from Indi, and they left together.