List of The Bill Characters (E-L) - K - Gabriel Kent

PC Gabriel Kent PC Gabriel Kent was one of the most corrupt and deranged police officers ever to work at Sun Hill. On the outside, Gabriel appeared to be a respectable police officer, but he was just as quick to exploit trust as he was to gain it. Before joining the Metropolitan Police, Gabriel spent sixteen years in the Royal Navy. He was not highly regarded by other sailors and was thought of as a bully with a short temper. He later joined the Met to get revenge on Sgt June Ackland for one reason and one reason only; June had given birth to a boy and put the baby up for adoption. Gabriel's parents adopted June's son and gave him all the praise, making their own son extremely bitter and jealous. Gabriel arrived at Sun Hill under his brother's ID to seek revenge on June, but the mode of his insanity grew and grew as he demolished people and his colleagues when he committed crimes of fraud, perjury, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, rape, murder and conspiracy to murder. Throughout his time at Sun Hill, Gabriel evolved from a bullying bigot into a serial killer.

Gabriel first appeared as a stranger who frightened away a mugger from off-duty Sergeant June Ackland before he joined Sun Hill. When he arrived at Sun Hill, he brought a mature aged attitude to the force; he was keen to do good and enforce the law. In the beginning he worked mostly by the book, but soon the power went to his head. His first victim was PC Ruby Buxton who resigned from the force when Kent bullied her into lying on the stand at a court appearance. Inspector Gina Gold was immediately aware of his actions and kept a watchful eye over him after the incident. So greatly annoyed at his superior was Kent that he turned to blackmail when he discovered that she had been caught over the legal alcohol limit and used this to force her hand. After enacting actions of a mental proportion he turned to the physical side of things when involved in the marriage of DC Jim Carver to Marie Graham. Called out to a disturbance at their home, Gabriel took control of the situation by hitting Jim over the head with a vodka bottle. Both Jim and Marie subsequently ended up in hospital with confusion reigning on what had actually occurred. However, Marie reported seeing Gabriel hit Jim with the bottle. But the clever Gabriel was able to clear his name of her allegation, although Gina was not at all convinced by his side of the story. Gabriel then moved onto June by playing on her insecurities and then seducing her. The two began a relationship, which they kept to themselves. However, Gina had done some digging into Gabriel's background and discovered his birth certificate, showing that his birth name was Robert Ackland – the son June had given up for adoption. But DC Carver later found the birth certificate and showed it to June. Shocked and horrified that she had committed incest, June confronted Gabriel and he admitted that he was her son. However, he then repented and revealed to June that her real son was in fact his adoptive brother after she told him that his son's birth had been the result of a rape when June was only a teenager and that their relationship was all part of his revenge plan. Shocked and furious, June threatened to tell the whole relief the truth, but Kent convinced her to remain quiet by giving her the chance to meet her real son. PC Kent's secret was again kept behind closed doors.

Gabriel continued his menacing ways by using unorthodox methods to stop criminals, exerting physical violence and fabricating evidence. He was assigned as the community officer for the Cole Lane Estate for a period of time where he continued to issue his own brand of justice. He violently assaulted a paedophile and hired thugs to beat up a loan shark to punish them for terrorising the residents and their crimes. But things really began to get out of hand when he had two teenage boys beaten up as punishment for robbing an elderly woman. After this incident, his behaviour was reported by Laura Bryant, a Cole Lane resident at the time but he was able to clear his name of her complaint and was removed from his role. For many months, Sun Hill was terrorised by a serial sniper who targeted criminals. During this reign of terror, gour victims were shot dead by the mysterious gunman – Lee Sandford, one of the teenage residents on the Cole Lane Estate who Gabriel had beaten up, Malcolm Willard who had sexually abused DC Terry Perkins, his brother Ben when they were children and Christopher Spinks, a local drug dealer and PC Kerry Young, after she uncovered the truth about Gabriel being corrupt. There were suspicions that Gabriel was the sniper, but Gabriel appeared to be cleared when he was almost shot by the sniper himself when dealing with a suspect. It turned out that the sniper was Jason Hardy, an ex-Navy friend of Kent's and that Kent himself was a conspirer to the three murders the sniper had carried out. Gabriel held many grievances against criminals in the community and supplied the names of the three victims to Hardy and it was Hardy who pulled the trigger. When the net began to close in on Hardy and officers arrived to arrest him, Kent was one step ahead of them and threw Hardy from his high-rise balcony to protect his secret. However, PC Steve Hunter witnessed this but Gabriel convinced him that he was trying to hold onto Hardy to prevent him falling, when in fact he had let go of his hand deliberately. But despite Gabriel being proved innocent, his colleagues grew more and more suspicious over his actions and question marks remained over his behaviour.

For sometime, Gabriel had been obsessed with his colleague PC Kerry Young. When Kerry slept with Sergeant Dale Smith, who was secretly in love with her, after a heavy drinking session, Gabriel twisted the situation out of his hatred for the Sergeant by cruelly tricking Kerry into accusing Smithy of date-rape, persuading her to make an official allegation and then spread the news around the whole relief. Kerry, however, withdrew the accusation after realising that Smithy was incapable of rape. After the failure of the rape allegation against Smithy, Gabriel developed a sick interest in Kerry and tried to get close to her. He even kissed her while on duty, but Kerry pushed him away as she was seeing PC Cameron Tait at the time. But Gabriel convinced himself that she was deliberately 'leading him on' and making him think that they could have had a relationship. And when Kerry agreed to marry Cameron, Gabriel accused her of 'pushing him too far' and 'winding him up' and took out all his anger and jealousy on her by violently raping her. Shocked and traumatised by the vicious attack, Kerry confided in Cameron but Gabriel convinced him that Kerry slept with him willingly and was just the girl who cried rape when she was unfaithful, for he knew that no one would believe her after her previous cry of rape. Kerry was distraught when Cameron didn't believe her and ended their relationship. Knowing she couldn't report him, Gabriel mentally taunted Kerry and played sick mind games with her, before later admitting to Cameron that he did indeed rape her. Cameron convinced Kerry to report the rape, but Gabriel blackmailed her for neglecting her duty during an armed robbery at a bank and threatened to end her career if she reported the rape. He then played his last sick game with Kerry by deliberately goading Cameron into assaulting him in the station canteen. Cameron's career was put on the line after his attack on Gabriel and he left Sun Hill the next day and returned to Australia without Kerry. Kerry went completely off the rails when she couldn't tell the truth, but she warned Gabriel that the battle was far from over and swore that she would find a way to destroy him like he destroyed her.

Kerry eventually found comfort in Smithy among others when he declared his undying love for her. Finally, her chance to put Gabriel behind bars came when she discovered his true identity from June Ackland, after she tried to tell June about the rape. Kerry vowed to reveal the truth to the rest of the officers but just after she declared her undying love for Smithy, Gabriel used Hardy's sniper rifle to shoot Kerry dead in the arms of her utterly devoted boyfriend outside the station from a nearby rooftop to stop her from exposing him. Gabriel stood victorious as Kerry could no longer expose him, but his cruel victory did not remain glorious for long because he then regretted killing her after he discovered that as a result of the vicious rape, she was pregnant with his unborn child. After acting extremely inappropriately at Kerry's funeral, Gabriel pushed a devastated Smithy too far with his attitude towards Kerry's death that Smithy flipped out at him and attacked him during the rest. Seizing an opportunity to cover his tracks as a rapist and a murderer and to get one over Smithy out of his hatred for the Sergeant and his cruel jealousy of Kerry's love for him, Gabriel announced to the whole relief that Kerry was pregnant with his son when she died and manipulated them into believing that he and Kerry had been secretly dating in her last months of life. Everyone believed him, but were confused at the same time as they never knew about it. Gabriel, however, convinced them that he and Kerry wanted to keep their 'relationship' quiet and told them that they both meant everything to each other, making himself look like he was the love of Kerry's life. Luckily however, a grief-stricken and angry Smithy, Kerry's real boyfriend and the real love of her life, was not as easily fooled as everyone else for he knew that none of Gabriel's stories about Kerry made any sense whatsoever. Although Gabriel almost had him convinced at first, everything finally began to add up when Smithy discovered that Kerry had claimed that Gabriel raped her before she died. However, he still didn't know what to believe until Kerry's grieving father George came to the station to collect Kerry's belongings and to meet Smithy. But unfortunately, Gabriel interceded and told George about Kerry's pregnancy and their secret 'relationship'. But that didn't stop George from telling Smithy what Kerry felt for him and that she called him her 'knight in shining armour'. Gabriel, however, overheard the conversation and once again pushed Smithy too far with all his lies when he told their colleagues that Kerry called him her 'knight in shining armour'. Furious and realising that what Kerry said was indeed true, Smithy reported the rape allegation to the Murder Investigation Team. Out of all his love for his girlfriend, Smithy swore to expose Gabriel as a rapist and avenge Kerry's death.

A fellow officer PC Andrea Dunbar worked alongside Sergeant Smith to expose Gabriel for his crimes, for it was Andrea who Kerry confided in about her rape in Gabriel's hands the day before her death and informed Smithy. Despite the fact that MIT couldn't pin Kerry's rape on Gabriel, Andrea kept digging more into his background after the death of the sniper when she figured that Gabriel was somehow connected to him and the murders of his three victims. Gabriel, however, became suspicious that Andrea was onto him after seeing her talking to PCSO Laura Bryant about his actions on the Cole Lane Estate and threatened her if she didn't back away. Despite the threat, Andrea continued her investigation and finally found the evidence that she and Smithy needed to put Gabriel away. However, Andrea was then exposed as an undercover journalist and Smithy refused to listen to her because of the nature of her deception. But when Andrea convinced him that they had evidence against Gabriel, Smithy agreed to let her collect it from her pigeonhole. The evidence that Andrea obtained was a newspaper article from Gabriel's days in the Navy and a photograph of him and Hardy, proving his true identity. However, Gabriel caught her with the article, held her hostage in a store room and admitted all of his crimes when Andrea pieced all the pieces of the jigsaw together.

After some convincing from Andrea, he appeared repentant and ready to give himself up until disaster struck at Sun Hill; misguided PCSO[Colin Fairfax drove a petrol-laden van through the reception of Sun Hill station, which was followed by a huge explosion. Minutes later, Gabriel seized his opportunity for a second chance, rose from the ashes and left Andrea to perish in the resulting fire with all the evidence she had against him. Gabriel was then hailed by his colleagues, who were all unaware that he had deliberately left Andrea in the fire, as the hero by winning brownie points when he rescued Smithy from the burning station. Smithy, however, was not at all grateful for Gabriel saving his life as his hatred for the PC was just too strong, for he still believed Kerry's rape allegation against him and even believed that he was involved in her murder. Not to mention Andrea telling him that Gabriel was working alongside Jason Hardy and that she had the evidence to prove it. When Andrea's body was later recovered from under a pile of rubble, Gabriel believed he had finally gotten away with all his cruel crimes and seized his opportunity to put them all behind him and make a fresh start.

After the fire, Gabriel appeared to be a changed man, keeping himself out of trouble and performing good police work. However, he wasn't a changed man for long when he held off the temptation to begin a relationship with PC Sheelagh Murphy. Instead, he chose to seek solace in prostitutes but after regaining trust in his colleagues, he became selfish once again by dating Sheelagh while still having a prostitute girlfriend. It was a bumpy relationship, but even when June warned Sheelagh off about Gabriel, Smithy drunkenly revealed to her that Kerry said he raped her and Gabriel himself told her that he pushed the sniper to his death, Sheelagh was never swayed. Despite the rocky nature of the relationship, the two later became engaged. After successfully killing Kerry, Andrea and the sniper, everything seemed to be going well for Gabriel. But several months after the fire, his chances of getting away with everything he had done were once again put at risk. On the day of Sun Hill Police Station's 50th anniversary, Gabriel's world started to collapse when an unexpected visitor came to the station asking to see June Ackland – his brother, the real Gabriel Kent who had returned to Sun Hill from the USA for good. Gabriel tried to convince his colleagues that the man claiming to be Gabriel Kent was an insane person he had come across before who had stolen his identity. Immediately after the real Gabriel was shot and fell off a balcony during a siege at Sun Hill station, Gabriel visited him in hospital and threatened him to keep quiet about his identity. Luckily however, PC Laura Bryant told Sergeant Smith that the man shot during the siege had arrived at the station asking for June and saying that his name was Gabriel Kent. Smithy began to put more pieces of the puzzle together when he told Laura that June had a son she gave up for adoption called Gabriel Kent and that he thought Robert Ackland's birth certificate belonged to PC Gabriel Kent. Smithy and Laura went to June and Laura told her that the gunshot victim said his name was Gabriel Kent. When Smithy told June that he knew she had a son, June told them that the man they had been working with for the past two years was not her son and not Gabriel Kent.

When Smithy brought June to the hospital, she recognised her son immediately and identified him as the real Gabriel Kent. June then explained to Smithy how she had her son when she was sixteen following a rape and was forced to give him up by her parents. She then revealed that PC Gabriel Kent was really David Kent, her son's adoptive brother. June explained that David had stolen his brother's identity to work in the Force and get revenge on her because he blamed her for all the errors in his life after his parents adopted her son. June insisted on telling Superintendent Adam Okaro about her son and PC Kent's true identity, but Smithy persuaded not to as she could have lost her job over keeping it secret for so long. Smithy then confided in June about Kerry's rape allegation against Gabriel and was devastated when it was finally confirmed as true when June told him that Kerry had come to see her before she died and had tried to tell her something but was unable to. Gabriel was worried that his chances were at risk and asked Sheelagh to move away and leave the country with him. Sheelagh really considered Gabriel's idea and told Laura. Horrified, Laura revealed Gabriel's secret to Sheelagh and begged her not to leave with him. Suspicious and stunned by Laura's revelation, Sheelagh went through Gabriel's packed suitcase and found his brother's ID card and mobile phone, only to be caught by him. Gabriel confessed to Sheelagh that he was really David Kent, but swore that he loved her and that they could still get away together. Sheelagh tried to escape, but Gabriel caught her, beat her and tied her up. Laura and PC Tony Stamp later found her and rescued her. Gabriel then made his way to the hospital to try to kill the real Gabriel by turning off his life support machine and suffocating him with a pillow. As he thought his brother was dead, he left. Luckily, PC Steve Hunter reached the real Gabriel just in time and the doctors successfully resuscitated him.

But the fake Gabriel knew his time was running out when he saw Smithy arrive with a raid of uniform officers as he and June investigated a disturbance in a block of flats. Knowing that he had been exposed and Smithy had arrived to arrest him, Gabriel snapped at June once again; he dragged her up to the rooftop, vented all his remaining anger on her, handcuffed her to the railing, blamed his troubles on her and confessed to all of his evil crimes. Luckily, Smithy climbed up to where they were in time to save June and overheard Gabriel's confessions. And when Gabriel confessed to the rape and murder of Smithy's beloved girlfriend Kerry, Smithy flew into a rage, charged at Gabriel and the two men had an aggressive fist-fight but before Smithy could arrest him, Gabriel overpowered him and knocked him out unconscious. Realising that his time was finally up, the evil David Kent made one last decision and threw himself off the rooftop to his death to avoid spending the rest of his menacing life in prison.