Gary Phillips

Gary Phillips is a major character in the Series 1 episode ''Buried Lies. ''He is the partner of Ronnie Crew and becomes a suspect in the death of her young daughter, Sarah. He is portrayed by Barney Craig.

Background
Gary was in a relationship with Marion Wallace, but he had a nasty temper and was frustrated by Marion's baby daughter, Kim. When she started crying, Gary would abuse her, throwing her about and shaking her. To try and get her to quieten down and thus protect her from Gary's rages, Marion would give her tranquilisers. Unfortunately, she accidentally overdosed Kim and she died. Gary insisted that Marion take the full blame for Kim's death and she was imprisoned. Three years later, Gary got into a relationship with Ronnie Crew, a woman living in similar circumstances, with two young children, Dean and Sarah. Gary would apparently abuse Sarah as well, losing his temper around her easily.

Buried Lies
Gary and Ronnie take the children on a picnic to the river. Whilst Dean and Sarah play on the rope swing, Gary and Ronnie have sex, but are interrupted when Sarah falls in the river and Ronnie has to save her. Gary is infuriated by this and when Sarah leaves for school, he lures her to the river with her favourite sweets and offers to push her on the swing. He pushes too far out, causing her to fall into the water. Gary merely stands and watches as Sarah drowns. He feigns ignorance over Sarah's disappearance and appears to be genuinely shocked when he asked to identify her body, suggesting he may feel some remorse.

Gary terrorises Marion's son Michael at school and also attacks Dean when the police begin questioning him over Sarah's death, believing that Dean told them he abused Sarah. He smashes Dean's toy plane, but once his anger subsides, he feels guilty over his actions. crying and apologising, and promising to buy Dean a new plane. When DI Tom Adams threatens Gary in a pub toilet, Gary is antagonised and breaks into Sam Ryan's home, unaware her nephew Ricky is in the house. Gary trashes Sam's computer and also drinks a beer and goes through her underwear, sniffing them and burning holes in them with a cigarette. He find Ricky hiding beneath Sam's bed, but flees when the smoke alarm goes off.

Gary is arrested and brought in for questioning in regards to breaking into Sam's house and also for his involvement in Sarah and Kim's deaths. However, there is no hard evidence of him having committed the crime, so he is released on bail. Gary goes to the school, apparently looking for either Dean or Michael. However, he leaves when Dean spots him and runs off to call the police. Gary returns home and begins beating Ronnie, accusing her of telling the police about the abuse. Dean arrives and tries to defend his mother - Gary attacks him instead and knocks him into a wall, causing a glass vase to fall over and break. Gary insults Dean and Ronnie, before turning to Ronnie again. Before Gary can do anything, however, Dean snaps and grabs one of the vase shards, jumps on Gary's back and repeatedly stabs him in the chest with it. Sam, having only just left the Crew house and suspecting something is wrong, races back and finds Gary, barely alive. She tends to his wounds, ordering the others to call an ambulance. Gary is last seen being carried on a stretcher to an ambulance; he is presumably incarcerated afterwards.