Timothy "Tinhead" O'Leary is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, played by Philip Olivier.
Jimmy Corkhill (Dean Sullivan) identifies Tim as the culprit but decides to help him avoid being caught by the police.
Tinhead was the leader of a gang of boys who continued to terrorise other pupils despite protests made to the head teacher by their parents.
Leo tried later to become part of Tinhead's gang by helping him steal a computer from the Simpsons' house on Brookside Close.
Tinhead's plan backfired when he tried to remove the machine without turning off the water supply which resulted in him flooding the flat and causing extensive damage to Mick's shop below.
In an effort to make Tinhead a more responsible person Sinbad convinced David Crosbie (John Burgess) to give him a job at the petrol station, but it's not long before Tinhead, who resented being made to work, caused trouble when he put diesel in Ron Dixon (Vince Earl)'s petrol car.
While playing with fireworks he caused a lorry to swerve, and crash into his house where Melanie was sitting watching television; luckily, she was not badly hurt.
When Sinbad offered to let him stay with him in Brookside Close, Tinhead agreed to put the past behind him and make a fresh start.
To help him achieve this, Sinbad persuaded Mick Johnson to give Tinhead a job at his chip shop.
Lindsey Corkhill (Claire Sweeney), his new boss, asked him to work late and he was unable to meet Emily at the arranged time.
While in Blackpool, Emily persuaded Tinhead to help her steal from one of the other guests and later on the way back to set fire to Susannah's car.
Tinhead continued to help Emily with her vendetta against Susannah, but when she turned her attention to other innocent people he began to have doubts about her real motives.
Tinhead decided he could no longer be involved in her criminal activities after he agreed to help her break into a house only to see her start to wreck the place for no apparent reason.
While on holiday Emily had accidentally recorded on video a taped confession where she admitted carrying out various crimes during her vendetta against Susannah.
By this time they were running out of money so Emily decided they should call on Brian, a gay salesman they had met previously in Blackpool.
Tinhead couldn't stand the thought of Emily going to prison, so he persuaded her to let him take all the blame when they appeared in front of the magistrate.
Although Emily agreed to this she was distraught when Tinhead pleaded guilty to all the charges against him, although he was allowed home on bail pending his appearance in court.
Mike was concerned for his safety and told Tinhead to slow down, but his plea was ignored until eventually their car crashed.
Tinhead, Robbie and Clint escaped but Mike was badly hurt and ended up in hospital with serious back injuries.
When the prisoner demanded to Tim to give him the drugs back, Tinhead discreetly told him that Sotto has them in his cell.
She argued with Tinhead outside the registry office, but he ignored her and drove away with Emily in a stretch Limo, to spend their first night in a hotel.
5 where they held their own party with music blasting out from the car stereo which upset a lot of the neighbours, especially Ron Dixon and Jimmy Corkhill.
Luckily, Jimmy Corkhill (Dean Sullivan) took pity on them and offered to let both Tinhead and Emily stay at his house.
Jimmy encouraged Tinhead to stay away from crime, but he found it impossible to get a good job with a prison record.
Furious at being made to look foolish, Tim wanted revenge, so after gaining information from Lance Powell (Mickey Poppins) about one of Christy's scams put his plan into action.
Undeterred, Tinhead persuaded Christy to let him take part in another heist on a lorry loaded with booze.
Christy was forced to give the gang all the booze from Bev's Bar while Tinhead ended up in hospital after being washed up on the banks of the Mersey.
Later he enlisted Steve Murray's (Steven Cartait) help and together they managed to steal a van full of booze from the gang without being seen.
[7][8] Their colleague Gareth McLean bemoaned the lack of realism in Brookside and complained that it had too many characters, including Tim and Emily, that viewers could not relate to.
They added that "when it comes to boys behaving badly, Brookside's resident school bully Tinhead takes some beating.