The Number One Nasties!
SHORTLAND STREET'S MOST MEMORABLE BAD GIRLS
ROBYN STOKES (Kirstie O'Sullivan)
Nurse Robyn Stokes was on a fast track to snaring "soul-mate" and "love of her life" Andrew Solomon from Day One during her time on Shortland Street. But the big question is - is Robyn a psychopath or simply a woman fuelled by twisted passion? Let's rewind and relive some of Robyn's not so glorious deeds: She faked her own home invasion for a sympathy vote. She drugged and kidnapped Andrew's sister Claire. She hired a hitman to kill Andrew. She seduced him when he was recovering from a serious head wound and then turned up at his wedding to Sarah Potts, 5 months pregnant with his twins! And that's just this time around on Shorty; remember a few years ago when she spiked "best mate" Toni's drink and landed her in ED? So will Robyn get her comeuppance? Surely one day she must be held accountable for her dirty deeds!
SAMARA HINDMARSH (Jodie Rimmer)
Samara was really Lily (although not lily-white). She was a struggling lass who met the real Samara on an O.E. The real Samara had money and privilege and when whe died in an accident, Lily assumed her identity. She returned to New Zealand and sought out Chris Warner, who she knew had money and connections - and hadn't seen the real Samara since they were children. She lied and lied and lied and lied until she coerced Chris into marrying her. It wasn't until a suspicious Rachel McKenna (who was in love with Chris) tracked down her family that she was unmasked, at the altar, when Mrs Hindmarsh said 'This is not our daughter!' Chris was devastated. This story was also memorable for a cat-fight between Rachel and Samara on the morning of the wedding, with Samara in her wedding dress.
MACKENZIE CHOAT (Ingrid Park)
Mackenzie just wanted to belong. She was in the hospital as a doctor but soon realised that the answer to being accepted by the Shortland Street community was to target the most popular man, Lionel Skeggins, whom she eventually married. The only thing that stood in her way was Lionel's son Luke, with whom he had just been reunited. MacKenzie did all she could to keep Luke from coming between her and Lionel, including drugging him to make him more pliable and lying so that she'd always seem best to Lionel. MacKenzie was also motivated by greed and when she discovered another of the clinic's villains, Oscar Henry, was embezzling funds she double-crossed him and killed him, setting in chain a murder-mystery which culminated in disaster when she blew up the clinic and escaped with wads of cash, only to be double-crossed herself at the last minute by Greg Feeny. Phew! You could say it was because of MacKenzie that Lionel was swept out to sea, never to be seen again.
CARLA CROZIER-LEECH (Elisabeth Easther)
Carla was psychotic, but it took people a long time to realise it. Spiking food and drink was her specialty. Jealous of her popular sister Ellen Crozier and all she'd achieved, Carla put marijuana on Ellen's pizza so she'd fail a drug test and lost her position as Director of Nursing. She spiked Tiffany's drink and allowed her to stumble out onto the road and collapse in front of an on-coming bus, and she put crushed glass in Sam Aleni's smoothie (ripping out his insides) when he wouldn't be her partner. Carla killed her husband, Bernie, bashing him on the head with a candlestick after he discovered she's faked both a pregnancy and a miscarriage. She was eventually taken away to a mental institution.
ALEESHA COOK (Sonia Gray)
Aleesha was a con-woman extraordinaire and like all cons she targetted the easiest touch - Nick Harrison. She used her gorgeous wiles to get whatever she wanted from Nick; money, a car, and a job a Shortland Street which she knew she she could slack off from because Nick would cover for her. Whenever Nick tried to pull away from her, she was able to reel him back in, eventually telling him she was pregnant with his baby. She'd also told the same thing to Frank Malone and Fergus Kearny, going so far as to put holes in Fergus's condoms.
KATHERINE BLAKE (Margaret Umbers)
Katherine falsified her medical certificate and what little medicine she knew came straight from medical software (this was 1993 - pre-internet times). She also became obsessed with Chris Warner, keeping a shrine to him in her house. When Chris discovered she was a fake doctor she took the only course of action open to her and tried to run him down in a car.
LAYLA CORNWALL (Louise Harris)
From lies to manipulation to outright threats, Layla Cornwell
would do anything to win and keep the affections of ambulance
driver Nelson Copeland (Quinton Hita) - and to outmanoeuver her
gorgeous rival Jesse George (Hannah Tolich). Layla's
specialty was damsel-in-distress and she played on Nelson's guilt
(at his failure to save Anne Kahu's life), creating a world of lies
to keep his sympathy. Things took on a single white female
flavour when, seeing that Nelson admired Jesse, Layla began to
steal her persona. When a suspicious Jesse began to
investigate her rival, Layla took her vendetta into the workplace
for the first time placing innocent patients at risk to discredit
Jesse. Nelson finally discovered the true extent of Layla's
deception and ended things with her. But Layla had one last
trick up her sleeve. She ended up back at Shortland Street
hospital after causing a head-on collision and hung herself in her
ward, ensuring Jesse would be the one to find her. Jesse was
devastated and when she left town it looked as though Layla had
come between her and Nelson for good. But Nelson followed her
and they ended up in the Solomon Islands together.
