Brendan Austin (Home and Away)

Brendan Austin is a fictional character in the Australian soap opera Home and Away, portrayed by actor Kain O'Keefe from late March 2009.Irish actor Richard Feighery had auditioned for the part but lost out to Kain in the final two.

Background
Brendan was born with Autism. He has a mother, Gina, and two brothers named Hugo and Xavier. Their father, Jeremy, has left the family. Hugo at 18 years old left the family not being able to cope with Brendan's condition, meaning Gina and Xavier had to struggle looking after him. Brendan as to have his sticks with him all the time to make him feel at ease.

Arrival
Brendan arrived in the bay with his mum Gina to visit his brother's Hugo and Xavier. Brendan was pleased to see Xavier but later got upset at having to leave and lashed out. He sprained Gina's ankle. Hugo and Xavier are temporarily looking after him. Hugo tends to leave Xavier to look after Brendan all the time.

The car accident
One night, while in Martha's care, he runs away. With his slingshot, he flicks a rock and it hit Leah's car, going through the windscreen, hitting Roman in the head. Roman is badly injured and is in a coma. He could have brain damage. When the police turned up at Martha's Brendan got scared and later did a runner and climbed a tree. Too many people started crowding around, and he fell out of the tree, but was ok.

When Roman wakes from the coma, he is blind. His Mother, Gina, soon finds out that Brendan caused the accident.