Paul Bennett was a Character on DEXTER. He is the second ex-husband of Rita Brandon as well as the father of Astor and Cody Bennett. Paul was a drug-user, addicted to heroin and owed money to dealers such as Ricky. Unfortunately, he became a manipulative rapist and abuser to his ex-wife, often harming Rita to express his violent temper. Regardless of this behavior, he did have some love for his children a he believed that family was important, though Cody was too young to realize what a monster he was. Astor, however, knew all too well.
He acted as a Secondary Antagonist for Season One, disliking his ex-wife's current boyfriend as he felt Rita belonged to him. Unfortunately, this boyfriend happened to be Dexter Morgan, who unknown to Paul or Rita was a rather successful Serial Killer. His continuing pestering of Rita and the kids led to Dexter taking matters into his own hands, though not killing Paul he did arrange for him to get sent back to prison where he ultimately met his end by another prisoner.
Appearance
Paul was a Caucasian male in his 30's. He had dirty-blonde messy mid-length hair which he cut shorter while in prison.
Early Life
Paul Bennett was born to Bill Bennett and his wife Maura, likely in Orlando, FL where they currently live. Much of his early life prior to meeting Rita Brandon is unknown though it's likely he was also involved with drugs during that period. It is known that she is from Michigan, so it's likely he was up there at the time.
The two of them married, bearing two children from the relationship - Astor and Cody. At some point Paul met a dealer named Ricky, whom he later owed a great deal of money to and likely had other dealers after him. He became addicted to crack and became very abusive towards his family, with Cody being too young at the time to remember but his older child Astor knowing all too well.
At some point, the family moved to Miami, FL where they settled into a house and a new life. Unfortunately, Paul remained an abuser - one night in particular became so horrible that he repeatedly beat and raped his wife. It was his daughter Astor who made a call to the police. Officer Debra Morgan was one of the first to respond on scene to the domestic violence report. Paul was promptly arrested and imprisoned. He was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for domestic violence but was released after only six months due to overcrowding and good behaviour in prison.
Plot
Season One
Over 6 months passed since Paul was put in jail, where Rita had now moved into a relationship with Dexter Morgan. One day the two of them and the kids were outside working on the gardening, when an old dealer of Paul's named Ricky arrived on their doorstep looking for the money which Paul owed him for drugs. After being rude and obnoxious to Rita, he decided that he'd just take her car as payment and in her dedication to put Paul and her past life behind her, she gave up the key (after throwing it at Ricky) whom took the car and vanished. She refused to file a report, wanting to move on with her life.
When Astor's birthday is approaching, Paul calls Rita to tell her that he's being released from prison due to overcrowding and good behaviour in prison. Rita's attitude goes from her joyful bliss to an upset expression, something Astor takes note of knowing she only gets like that when talking to their dad. Paul tells Rita that he wants to come to Astor's party and Rita initially tells him she'll think about it. Cody finds our that his dad might be coming home and gets exited, not knowing why he went away in the first place or what sort of person he is. He blabs about it at school and several parents decide to keep their children from coming to Astor's party. As Astor becomes increasingly depressed about kids not wanting to come, Rita calls Paul up and tells him not to come anywhere near the party, afterwards assuring parents that Paul won't be there the children are again allowed by their parents to attend the party.
Despite being told to stay away and Rita having a restraining order against him, Paul comes and visits the children, trying to win them over as well as Rita. Cody is exited by his visits while Astor, who knew why he was in prison, wasn't happy to see him. Eventually, Rita visits Paul at his home and tells him to sign the divorce papers, which he refused to sign while he's in prison, in return for supervised time with the children once a week. He agrees and eventually wins Astor over by promising not to harm Rita again.
For a while, everything seems to be going okay until Rita had to go away for the weekend which annoys Paul as he's forced to miss one of his supervised sessions. Although Rita promises to make the session up to him, Paul is angry as he'd planned to go to the circus.
As a result, Paul comes over one night seeming drunk. Rita asks him to leave but he refuses to Rita gets the children out the house and then tries to settle him into her bedroom. Before she leaves the room, Paul grabs her and then attempts to rape her but she grabs the baseball bat and hits him. Paul ends up in hospital as a result.
Paul sues Rita for assault and it looks as if Rita is going to lose the case as no alcohol or drugs were found in Paul's body and due to Rita forcing Paul to miss a session. Rita knew that she'd lose full custody of the children if she lost the case.
Paul drops by after one of his visits and tells Rita that it didn't have to be this way if she would agree to unsupervised visits. Rita realises that Paul had set her up, faking being drunk in order to get unsupervised time with the children or full custody. She storms off and Paul ends up talking to Dexter in the kitchen about his children. After calling Rita 'that skinny bitch', Dexter hits him around the head with a frying pan and drags him back to his place, dosing him with drugs.
Paul is found by the police and arrested. He is sent to prison but doesn't understand how he got from Rita's house to his place. He believes that Dexter is hiding something and is the one who knocked him out and asks Rita to look for the shoe which he thinks he lost. Rita hangs up on him and then finds the shoe.
Season Two
Paul is still in prison and gets regular visits from his children, who are disappointed that he's in prison though still happy to see him. He continues to call Rita about the shoe in order to use it as evidence at his appeal hearing, but Rita doesn't allow his lawyer to come over as she doesn't see how the shoe can be used as evidence.
Paul later calls Rita and tells her that he doesn't think he can survive in prison, but Rita ignores him and hangs up on him. She later gets a phone call that Paul had died in prison after getting into a fight with another prisoner and it's later revealed that he was blundered to death with a pipe.
Rita insist on giving him a proper burial, not a state one. Only Rita, Dexter, Astor, and Cody were the only people who attended his funeral, aside from the priest who led the ceremony.
The following info is subject for deletion as new info is added in.
At an unknown time prior to season 1, Debra Morgan, while still in the Vice department, was called to a domestic violence report at the Bennett's house. It transpired that Paul beat and raped Rita repeatedly before Astor finally called the police. Paul was arrested and imprisoned.
Bennett is eventually released due to 'good behavior,' and begins subtly harassing his estranged wife and children. He attempted to get to Rita through their children, gradually winning them.
Eventually Rita stood up for herself and forced Paul to sign divorce papers but this didn't stop him after he later attempted to rape her. He then attempted to attain full custody of his children to punish her for leaving him.
Bennett displayed great animosity towards Dexter, for obvious reasons. After a particularly charged conversation, in which Paul refers to Rita as 'that skinny bitch,' Dexter snaps and hits Paul around the head with a frying pan. He then drags Paul to his car, moves it, drives Paul to his bedsit, shoots him up with heroin and calls the police.
He is quickly arrested and imprisoned once more, though this time in a federal prison where he is assaulted constantly.
Despite Paul's pleas, Rita doesn't help him verify his story by looking for his 'missing shoe,' which he suspects - correctly - was knocked off his foot during Dexter's frame-job.
Shortly thereafter, Paul is killed in a fight in the prison. Rita feels some guilt for not heeding his warnings and concerns for his safety, but feels a sense of peace knowing that he is gone.
Cody and Astor take his death more seriously, though their love for Dexter softens the blow of losing their father.