The artist formerly known as Luke Ashford
Luke Ashford (aka Patrick Stanwood) was a guest character in 2017. He is the brother of Martin "Ash" Ashford and Billie Ashford. He was played by Luke McKenzie
Backstory[]
Luke's empty grave
Luke joined the army and was believed to have been killed in 2007. His brother Ash and his sister Billie were seen visiting his grave on Anzac Day 2015. It was later revealed that Luke was left so traumatised after a tour of duty in Afghanistan, he had faked his own death. His grave was empty and he was now living under a new identity - Patrick Stanwood. Patrick went to work up north as a jackaroo.
2017[]
Luke (now known as Patrick Stanwood) learned about his sister Billie's death and came to her funeral. He watched it from afar and was only seen by Kat Chapman. Ash then learned that he needed Luke's death certificate so that he could access Billie's estate. It was then that he learned that there was no death cert and that Luke was still alive. Ash then began to get silent phone calls. When he called the number back, they just went to voicemail and the account of somebody called Patrick Stanwood. Patrick sounded very like Luke...
Kat was able to trace the phone number and called to Patrick's address, along with Ash. Sure enough, Patrick and Luke were the same person. Ash punched him and walked away. Later Patrick came to see Ash and explained that after his last tour of duty, he had become depressed because of what he'd gone through. He'd faked is own death and decided to start afresh under the alias Patrick Stanwood. Kat questioned him for faking his own death but she felt it was unlikely any charges would come from this. Ash was still furious with his brother and didn't want anything to do with him. Kat forced the pair of them to have lunch together. Patrick admitted he had made a mistake and that he was still Ash's brother. Patrick also told Ash that the lease on his house was up and that he'd shortly be going back up north to work again.
Ash invited him to stay with him and Kat in the farmhouse for a short while. This wasn't something he'd run by Kat but she reluctantly went along with it. It soon became clear that Patrick had problems. He became agitated when Ash started telling Kat stories from their childhood and told him that he wasn't the same person he used to be. When Ash tried to wake him the next morning, Patrick put him into a choke-hold. Kat came to his rescue but it just made her even more uneasy about having him in the house. That night, Kat found Patrick sleepwalking and woke him up by calling him Luke. She asked him had he got help and he said he had but it hadn't helped. She issued him with an ultimatum: either he'd tell Ash about the sleepwalking or she would. When Patrick didn't tell Ash the full story, Kat got onto his case and told him that PTSD didn't just go away.
Kat was able to access some of Patrick's old army file. When he caught her reading it, he confronted her. When she asked him about Operation Bottleneck, he quickly changed his tune. Even though most of the information on his file was redacted, it was obvious that this mysterious Operation Bottleneck was something Patrick didn't want anybody to know about. He packed his bags and left for the Caravan Park. Before leaving, he begged Kat not to mention Operation Bottleneck again.
Things seemed to calm down after this. After Ash was granted custody of his niece Luc, he and Kat moved into the Pier Apartment together. They invited Patrick to take the other room, which he did. All was fine until Luc arrived. This made Patrick antsy all over again. A few weeks later, Patrick was forced to babysit Luc. When she started crying he had a PTSD episode and heard war noises. Luckily Kat was just downstairs in the Diner so she was able to rush in and take control of the situation. He still was unwilling to get help for his problems though. After another incident, Patrick punched Ash in the face and stormed off.
The next day, Patrick accidentally hit Ava Gilbert while reversing his car and knocked her unconscious. He was suffering from another flashback at the time and this one really freaked him out. He later opened up to Ash about what had happened to him in Afghanistan. He revealed that he had been stationed in a village near an orphanage. He could hear babies crying all day, which is what Luc's crying had triggered in him. One day, his platoon came under fire and during the chaos, he accidentally shot a little girl dead. She reminded him of Ava.
Patrick quietly left a note for Ash, packed his bags and left the apartment. After finding Patrick's note, Ash and Kat went in search for him. They found him at Bradley's Point where he was about to jump. Ash managed to stop him in time and Patrick agreed to get help. He then went with Ash to a rehabilitation facility in The City.