custody of Mickey. Kirsten tries to take Mickey away, but Mickey tells her that he would rather live with Ned and she returns him home. Ned and Janae's relationship comes to an end and Janae leaves Ramsay Street after kissing Darren Stark (Todd MacDonald). Ned then began to grow closer to Kirsten. When Steve tells Ned that their father was once a vicious drunk and a cheating husband, Ned refuses to believe him. Ned takes Kirsten and Mickey to Oakey to meet the family and he brings his father, Jim (Roger Oakley) back to Ramsay Street. Ned and Kirsten are caught in a bush fire. Kirsten is badly injured and Ned saves her. Ned later decides to leave Erinsborough with Mickey and Kirsten, so that Kirsten could get treatment for her burns. Reception O'Connor was nominated for 'Most Popular New Male Talent' at the 2006 Logie Awards for his portrayal of Ned. In 2007, O'Connor and co-star Natalie Blair (Carmella Cammeniti) were named 'King and Queen of Teen' at Dolly magazine's Dolly Teen Choice Awards. Ned has received negative criticism from Ruth Deller of television website Lowculture.co.uk. In a feature specially dedicated to Ned called "Clearing out the dead wood", Deller expressed her delight that the character was leaving Neighbours. She went on to say "Whilst Dan O'Connor's acting has been somewhat short of stellar, he can't take the sole blame for Ned's failure at becoming a character viewers took to their hearts. The scriptwriters never seemed to know what to do with him". Deller added that Ned had been portrayed as being sometimes thick, sometimes kind and sometimes selfish. She said "The only time he almost became likeable was when his son Mickey arrived, but seeing as the kid was only tolerable in scenes with Lou and Harold, that didn’t really work, either. He did get his kit off quite a lot though, so every cloud and all that". She finished by saying that Ned was the least loved of the Parker brothers. In a feature on the best and worst soap characters of the decade, Ned was placed first on the worst characters list. Deller said "Thick as two short planks, with their acting ability, Ned's storylines revolved around rubbish romances and being rubbish at a string of jobs. They even twisted the knife in by introducing more family members when Stu left in order to enable him