Dermot Ashton was the best friend of Rob Hawthorn.
Dermot met Louise Taylor in February 1996, offering to help her with the Riverbank College revue. Louise developed feelings for Dermot, but he took an interest in Natasha Andersen who used him to make her love interest Kurt Benson jealous. At Lucy Benson's 16th birthday party, Dermot and best friend Rob Hawthorn spiked Lucy and Natasha's drinks with ecstasy to lure the women into bed. Lucy abandoned her drink when the police arrived, but Natasha drank hers and collapsed from an overdose, dying in hospital. Rob was held accountable for her death, and was ultimately targeted by Kurt.
Meanwhile, Dermot began having financial problems and turned to Rob for help. The pair stole computer chips from Mr. Benson's electronics company, which sustained him for a few months. In October 1996, Rob planned to stage a robbery on his drug dealer's lock-up, bringing Lucy and Carol Groves along as alibis. The return of the drug dealers resulted in a car chase, and Rob lost control of the car whilst trying to stop Dermot from throwing the bag of money out of the window. The car plunged into the River Dee, leaving Carol seriously injured and killing Dermot outright.
List of appearances[]
1996[]
- 5th February 1996
- 12th February 1996
- 19th February 1996
- 26th February 1996
- 4th March 1996
- 11th March 1996
- 18th March 1996
- 25th March 1996
- 8th April 1996
- 29th April 1996
- 13th May 1996
- 10th June 1996
- 17th June 1996
- 28th October 1996
- 31st October 1996
- 4th November 1996
- 7th November 1996
- 11th November 1996