2006–2008 When Deano arrives in
Walford in 2006, he persuades his great-aunt
Pat Evans (
Pam St Clement) to take him in and is soon joined by his stepfather
Kevin Wicks (
Phil Daniels) and sister
Carly (
Kellie Shirley). Deano causes trouble by spiking
Stacey Slater's (
Lacey Turner) alcohol with drugs and allowing
Bradley Branning (
Charlie Clements) to take the blame, stealing
The Queen Victoria public house's
bust and driving recklessly, crashing a car – behaviour prompted by the anniversary of his brother
Jimbo's (Lloyd Richards) death. Deano is unwittingly reunited with his estranged mother,
Shirley Carter (
Linda Henry), during a family holiday in
Dorset. Despite Kevin's efforts to stop her, Shirley makes herself known to Deano and Carly and eventually reveals that she is their mother. Deano struggles with this and after seeing Shirley behave promiscuously, he behaves recklessly and crashes a car at high-speed injuring himself, his passenger
Chelsea Fox (
Tiana Benjamin) and a pedestrian,
Abi Branning (
Lorna Fitzgerald). Deano nearly dies from his injuries but bonds with Shirley during his recovery. Kevin is opposed to this and during many arguments, the truth about Deano and Carly's paternity is revealed by Shirley: Kevin is not their biological father. Deano is devastated and threatens suicide by almost setting himself on fire but is stopped before going through with it. Unlucky in love, Deano has sex with Stacey and has unrequited crushes on
Dawn Swann (
Kara Tointon) and Chelsea. Chelsea forces Deano into getting involved in a feud against
Sean Slater (
Robert Kazinsky). Deano tries to assault Sean but is conquered and battered. Chelsea and Deano swear revenge and frame Sean for the assault of
Patrick Trueman (
Rudolph Walker), stealing CCTV footage that would have exonerated him. Sean is imprisoned, but he gets revenge on Deano by having him attacked by a gang of thugs. When Carly finds the stolen CCTV footage featuring the real culprit,
Craig Dixon (
Rory Jennings), she gives it to the police and Sean is released. Deano and Chelsea are arrested for perverting the course of justice and released on bail. Sean attacks Deano again, flushing his head down a lavatory. Afraid of spending time in prison, Deano attempts to run away twice before his trial but eventually faces up to his responsibilities and is sentenced to six months imprisonment. He finds prison hard. On visits, his family discover that he is being bullied by the other prisoners and, after getting into trouble, he is denied early parole. Deano is permitted to attend Kevin's funeral under police supervision. When Deano is released from prison, he has changed vastly, behaving in a morose manner having been traumatised by his incarceration. He brings a prostitute back to Shirley's flat and then forces his mother to pay for her services. He headbutts Sean and when Shirley says she wants to rebuild their relationship, Deano responds with exasperation, violently pinning her against a wall, shouting in her face, showing her his prison injuries, and stealing cash and jewellery from her. After rejecting his mother, Deano leaves Walford. In September 2012, Carly returns to Walford for two days and tells Shirley that Deano is doing well, owns a bar and lives with his girlfriend in Australia.
2014–2016 Dropping his former nickname, Dean returns to the UK and develops a relationship with his maternal grandfather,
Stan Carter (
Timothy West). He follows Stan back to Walford, opening a salon there named Blades, funded by Stan, and briefly dating
Lauren Branning (
Jacqueline Jossa). He acquaints himself with his mother's family, who now own The Queen Vic, but is unkind towards Shirley, verbally abusing her for her poor parenting, leading to Shirley's thought-to-be brother
Mick Carter (
Danny Dyer) punching him. Dean slowly bonds with his mother and begins to integrate into his newfound family. He is attracted to, then, later, obsessed with Mick's partner,
Linda Carter (
Kellie Bright), who maternally hugs him after Shirley hurts him by stealing from him because she owes
Phil Mitchell (
Steve McFadden). Dean breaks into Phil's house, reclaiming the money. Dean also gropes Linda's buttocks during a photoshoot at Blades. Although Dean helps clean Shirley up after she shoots Phil, Shirley's aunt
Babe Smith (
Annette Badland) refuses to let Shirley take Dean with them as she flees from the police, leaving Dean distraught. Linda comforts him and Dean attempts to have sex with her. When Linda protests, Dean
rapes her. Linda tells no one about the ordeal but is mentally traumatised, more so when she discovers she is pregnant and fears that the baby is Dean's. Dean continues as if nothing has happened and begins dating Stacey after she moves into a flat shared with him. Stacey, herself a rape survivor, starts to notice Linda flinch whenever Dean is present and works out what has happened. She ends her relationship with Dean, throwing him out and refusing to believe his version of events: that sex with Linda had been consensual and that Linda's reaction stems from guilt. Stacey persuades Linda to tell Mick, which she finally does on Christmas Day 2014. Mick responds by pummelling Dean and is only stopped by Shirley's confession that Mick and Dean are, in fact, brothers. It transpires that Shirley is Mick's mother, not his sister, as he has grown up believing. The revelations cause a split amongst the family, with Shirley and Stan siding with Dean and refusing to believe Linda. Fights occur between Dean and the Carters, culminating in Dean being arrested by the police for rape and being released on bail. When the community finds out what Dean is being accused of, his social life and business are ruined. He goes to stay with his sister, Carly, in
York, but later returns and attempts to exact revenge on the Carters by breaking into The Queen Vic's cellar and trying to set it on fire. He is stopped by Mick, who assaults him so intensely that Mick's daughter,
Nancy (
Maddy Hill), fears her father has murdered Dean. When Dean's body goes missing from the cellar, Nancy suspects that Mick has disposed of Dean's body. However, Dean returns two months later in the company of
Buster Briggs (
Karl Howman), whom Shirley has recently revealed to be the biological father of both Dean and Mick. Buster announces that he has booked tickets to
Greece for Dean, Shirley and himself to start a new life together. Not wanting a life as a fugitive for Dean, Shirley calls the police and informs them of his whereabouts and he is arrested for breaking his bail conditions. He is released weeks later, without charge, due to a lack of evidence and agrees to remain in Walford with his parents, despite being made a local pariah. After Linda gives birth, Dean insists the baby,
Ollie, is his. However, Mick shares the baby's blood type while Dean does not, meaning Dean is not the father. Shortly after, Dean discovers that a one-night stand with
Shabnam Masood (
Rakhee Thakrar), years earlier, resulted in her becoming pregnant with his daughter, Roya Masood , renamed
Jade Green (Amaya Edward). Shabnam claims that the baby died, not wanting Dean to know the child has been adopted, but Dean suspects she is lying. Dean confronts Shabnam at her engagement party, then has sex with
Roxy Mitchell (
Rita Simons). Shirley tells Dean that Jade has
cystic fibrosis, leaving Dean infuriated that she lied. Devastated, Dean trashes Blades until Buster intervenes, then Shirley convinces him that Jade needs her father, so they carry out a
DNA test to confirm paternity. He embarks on a relationship with Roxy. The DNA results prove Dean is the father. He reveals Jade's existence to a contemptuous Mick and Linda. Linda rejects Dean when he offers to put the past behind them. Buster talks Dean out of trying for custody of Jade, so Shirley decides she will. Dean doesn't know how to relate to his daughter. Jade's visit is a disaster as Dean unknowingly reveals Jimbo died and she rushes out when she overhears. Mick takes her back. Her foster father tells Shirley and Buster they are unsuitable custodians. Roxy tells Dean she wants their relationship kept hidden, but when Roxy's sister
Ronnie Mitchell (
Samantha Womack) finds out, she forces Roxy to end it. However, they resume it again in secret, and Dean finds Ronnie's hidden spy camera, and sees Ronnie kissing
Vincent Hubbard (
Richard Blackwood). He deletes a message from Ronnie to Roxy. Dean's insecurity over Roxy's feelings for her missing brother-in-law,
Charlie Cotton (
Declan Bennett), leads him to burn her with hair straighteners, and later he cuts a chunk out of her hair. Dean proposes to Roxy to distance her from Ronnie's influence and then reveals to the Carters and Roxy that Ronnie tried to poison him. Dean and Roxy get engaged but when his anger causes her to get a cut on her face, she ends their relationship. Dean refuses to accept her decision and attempts to rape her, only prevented by Shirley's timely interruption. Roxy then flees for the police station, while Shirley attempts to drown Dean in the bath out of desperation, however she is unsuccessful and Dean strikes Shirley. During a heated argument with Linda over Roxy, Dean admits he raped Linda, then flees and hides. The next day, he arrives at Mick and Linda's wedding, where he attempts to kill Shirley by jumping into a lake with her. Mick saves them both, and the police arrive and arrest Dean for the attempted rape of Roxy. The following day, a letter arrives for Shirley from Dean, asking her to visit. Shirley and Buster both visit Dean in prison – where he tells them he needs help getting a good lawyer with the money from Blades. However, Shirley and Buster instead make it clear to Dean they do not want any further contact with him, and Buster warns Dean he knows people in prison who could make his life hell. One month later, Shirley hears that Dean has his plea hearing so visits him, urging him to plead guilty, threatening to disown him if he does not. However, in court, he pleads not guilty, but, as he has failed to surrender to bail previously, he is remanded in custody until his trial. In August 2016, off-screen, Dean is acquitted of attempted rape, due to lack of evidence, and Buster pays him off, warning him not to return to Walford again. After Mick disappears and is presumed dead on Christmas Day 2022, Shirley decides to stay with Carly and her grandson. Off-screen, she also reunites with Dean when staying with Carly and it is revealed through a social media photo posted by Carly which Linda sees in February 2023, leaving her horrified.
2023–2024 In October 2023,
Cindy Beale (
Michelle Collins) tells her partner
Ian Beale (
Adam Woodyatt) that she has gone into business with a man who previously lived in Walford. This is revealed to be Dean and Cindy is shocked when Ian informs her of Dean's rape crimes. Dean sneaks into The Queen Vic kitchen, horrifying Linda. He tells her that Jade is awaiting a lung transplant due to her cystic fibrosis and he therefore needs to stay near her and Shabnam. Linda refuses to believe Dean and confronts Ian and Cindy for going into business with him. Ian and Cindy attempt to end their partnership with Dean, but he refuses.
Whitney Dean (
Shona McGarty) confirms from Shabnam that Jade is indeed ill and informs Linda. Dean moves into the brewery apartments and tries to reacquaint himself with residents, including his former stepsister Chelsea (now
Zaraah Abrahams), but is rejected. After a series of harassments, Dean confronts Linda in The Queen Vic and is punched by her mother
Elaine Peacock's (
Harriet Thorpe) fiancé,
George Knight (
Colin Salmon), causing him to fall down the stairs. Dean decides to press charges against George for assault, but in a bid to stop George from going to prison, Linda agrees to Dean's proposition that she retracts her allegations that he raped her. However, she is unaware that Dean has taped it. Jade (now played by Elizabeth Green) returns to Walford to spend time with Dean. They initially struggle to bond and their brief bliss is ruined when Linda and
Keanu Taylor (
Danny Walters) reveal Dean's history of rape in front of Jade. Jade decides she wants nothing to do with Dean and leaves Walford. As revenge, Dean decides to play Linda's false confession in The Queen Vic, but no one believes him. He later publicly announces he is dating Cindy and George's daughter
Gina Knight (
Francesca Henry), shocking Linda. Cindy offers Dean money to sell his shares of Beales Eels to her and Ian, and to leave Gina and Walford. Dean refuses and continues seeing Gina. However Gina discovers Dean's true colours when he reveals his misogyny, and she dumps him. Jade soon returns to Walford and moves in with Dean. They bond well, but Dean is livid when Jade announces that she plans to move to Pakistan with Shabnam. In order to prevent this, he tampers with her medication so Jade will be too ill to go. When Jade decides to do a charity auction for cystic fibrosis patients, she receives assistance from
Jean Slater (
Gillian Wright). When Jean can't find a venue for the auction, Linda grants her permission to hold it in the Queen Vic, provided Dean will not come. Jean agrees, but Dean arrives anyway with Jade on an oxygen cylinder. Dean is furious when Jade mentions moving to Pakistan again and he secretly pulls out her oxygen tube and leaves. As a result, Jade faints. Pretending to be oblivious, Dean rushes Jade to the hospital and Jean follows him there. She is suspicious when Dean refuses to show Jade's doctor her medication. Jean confronts Dean who lies that the discrepancies in the medication are due to Jade wanting to take them herself and doing so incorrectly. Jean is momentarily pacified, but her suspicions are heightened when Jade arrives home from the hospital and tells Jean that Dean is the one who has been administering her medication. Jean confronts Dean again but is stunned when Dean blames her for Jade's ill health and asks Jean why she has been hurting Jade. Unbeknownst to Dean, Linda is trying to cover up the fact that she murdered Keanu on Christmas Day 2023, and has helped bury his body underneath the cafe floor. When the floor collapses, Keanu's body is discovered. Although
Sharon Watts (
Letitia Dean) is initially arrested for the crime, Stacey suggests to the others that since Dean never faced justice for what he did to Linda and Roxy, framing him for Keanu's murder would give him a semblance of comeuppance. She plants the
meat thermometer, which was used to kill Keanu, in Dean's flat while Linda makes a false statement to the police that she saw Dean drag what has turned out to be Keanu's body into the cafe at Christmas. She is able to convince
DCI Peter Arthurs (
Ian Burfield) by revealing that Dean raped her nearly a decade ago and she has been terrified of him ever since. Arthurs arrives on the square and subsequently arrests Dean while Sharon is released. Dean insists that he is being framed, but the meat thermometer is found in Dean's flat and the fact that he booked a flight to New York with no return is also used against him. Jean and Harvey tell Jade that Dean was the one tampering with her medication. They inform the police and are corroborated by Jade. Arthurs also arrests Dean for neglect and he is charged with Keanu's murder. During the trial, Dean finally publicly admits the rape but stresses he is innocent of Keanu's murder. He is then sentenced to nine years imprisonment, following his confession. ==Reception==