Lizzie Lakely was an old friend of Lisa Dingle's and a former employee of Sharma & Sharma.
Storylines[]
Lizzie is first seen in April 2009, when she meets Laurel Thomas at community service. Laurel takes pity on Lizzie after realising she is blind, and buys her a meal after Lizzie lies and says she has left her bag on the bus. Lizzie is then reunited with her old friend Lisa Dingle in the village shop and whilst in the shop she tries to steal some items and puts them into her bag. However, Lisa catches her and asks her to put them back, with Lizzie getting out her purse which she had told Laurel she had lost. When leaving Laurel and Ashley's house, Lizzie is taken away by the police after breaking her curfew. Lizzie moves in with the Dingles but outstays her welcome which annoys Zak Dingle and she soon makes friends in the village. Lizzie makes friends with David Metcalfe and begins to support him in the upcoming council election, but when she is bribed with money she supports Eric Pollard instead. She attends a council function for the disabled with him, but they are both removed by security when she is recognised as a thief and her tag is seen.
Lizzie attends Natasha Wylde and Mark Wylde's vow renewal reception, and belittles fellow family member Marlon Dingle's catering, knowing that he would cook her another meal too change her opinion of his cooking. Lizzie and Marlon become friends and Marlon asks her too move into Tall Trees Cottage with him which she accepts, much to the annoyance of his brother, Eli. Eli doesn't trust Lizzie and begins to follow her to find out where she makes her money. It eventually turns out that she is working on a psychic hotline and Marlon later discovers that she is, in fact, the psychic that he had been ringing and asking for romantic advice. After he makes Lizzie give back the money he spent on the premium phone calls. When she wins some money on a scratch card, Eli Dingle and Jake Doland trick her in order to keep the winnings themselves. However, Jake feels guilty and owns up, returning the money. In his defence, Eli then observes that Lizzie herself is a con-artist and she starts to question her own behaviour. She and Eli gradually become good friends.
Over time, Lizzie makes more friends in the village, getting a job at David's cleaning firm; however, she eventually takes a job at the sweet factory owned by Jai and Nikhil Sharma instead. Lizzie is attacked by an angry Aaron Livesy sending her handbag into the river and causing her to fall to the ground; thinking she has been mugged, Lizzie calls the police. Aaron later returns the bag after fishing it out of the river which Lizzie is grateful for, however, he does not accept the reward she offered him. Lizzie is left feeling traumatised by this – vulnerable at her lack of eyesight. Marlon and Eli become very concerned when she refuses to leave the house. Lisa eventually speaks to her and Lizzie confesses that she had once been violently mugged and just how much her blindness scares her under all the bravado. Lizzie is intimidated when a desperate Shadrach Dingle hassles her for money for alcohol when they are alone.
In 2011, Lizzie is unaware that Derek Benrose had raped her cousin, Lisa. After Lisa had been raped, Derek starts flirting with Lizzie and Lizzie is flattered with the attention she is getting from Derek, when Lisa tries to tell Lizzie that he is messing with her, Lizzie tells her to back off and thinks she is jealous that the man Lisa used to flirt with was paying someone else attention. The later on in that week, Nikhil asks someone to do overtime and Derek volunteers himself and Lizzie, Lisa is worried by this because he thinks that Derek might rape Lizzie, so Lisa puts a stop to it by finally revealing that Derek raped her, he is suspended pending an investigation and Lizzie feels guilty because she blocked her best friend out when she needed to talk to someone, she apologises to Lisa and they make up and since then Lizzie has taken a distinct dislike to Derek and she, Lisa and everyone else was happy when Derek was sent down for rape.
In December 2011, Lizzie returns after being away from the village for a while and when she goes into the pub, she confronts Marlon, telling him that she had tripped over a handbag that had been left on the floor, she asks who is his new woman, but Moira Barton steps in and tells her that it is her handbag, Lizzie is confused and asks why Moira's bag is in the house, not knowing that Moira's husband John Barton has thrown her out for cheating on him with Cain Dingle, so Marlon brushes it off. Later on, Ashley storms around Marlon's house looking for Laurel, but Marlon is left puzzled, he hears someone upstairs and rushes up there, he storms in the bathroom and catches Lizzie in the shower, later on Lizzie is confused to why Ashley was looking for Laurel and finds out that Marlon and Laurel fell in love while she was away but did not have an affair, this stuns Lizzie and she is left speechless. Lizzie later feels left out when Marlon announces that he is moving Laurel, Sandy, Gabby and Arthur Thomas into Tall Trees Cottage, she tells Lisa that she would feel pushed out, Laurel overhears and tells Lizzie she won't be pushed out of the cottage. Lizzie leaves the village to stay with her friend Toni in May 2013. Lisa went to visit the pair in August 2014.
Trivia[]
- Lizzie once had a dog for years but unknowingly sent it to its death when she threw a ball over a cliff.
Quotes[]
"Is this how you treat a damsel in distress? I hope I never see you again, you pathetic excuse for a human being!" - (First line, to uncredited bus driver)