RSPCA: Essex dog fighting ring smashed - as 'Dr Death' and three others convicted

Warning: Story contains content and images which are highly distressing.

Four people from Essex have been convicted over a “brutal” illegal dog fighting ring, which was involved in organised fights across England, Ireland and France.

Three men and one woman were all convicted of a string of offences on Wednesday (3 April) by a jury, after a month-long trial at Chelmsford Crown Court. Chigwell man Phillip Harris Ali, 67 - referred to in the dog fighting world as ‘Dr Death’ - was found guilty of 10 charges under the Animal Welfare Act, including four of keeping or training a dog for use in a fight, and two of causing a fight.

Billy Leadley, 38, of Green Street Kennels, pleaded guilty to one offence - of causing unnecessary suffering by failing to provide vet care for a tail injury - part-way through the trial. The jury found him guilty of a further nine; including keeping a premises for use in fighting and taking part in a fight by refereeing.

His wife Amy Louise Leadley, 39, was found guilty of three offences, while 56-year-old Stephen Albert Brown was found guilty of five - including three of keeping or training a dog for use in a fight. After the trial, Amy pleaded guilty to failing to meet the needs of seven dogs in their house, while Billy entered guilty pleas to two extra charges - failing to meet the needs of nine dogs being kept outside, and owning a banned breed - a pit bull.

The RSPCA first launched an investigation into dog fighting in Essex after an officer visited Ali’s Chigwell address in August 2021, over welfare concerns for a dog at the property. The animal rescue officer, Nick Jonas, told the court he saw several dogs being kept outside, including a light-coloured bully breed named Bonnie with scars and scratches on her face and legs. “When I questioned Ali about this he advised the dog has very thin skin and runs through bushes which cut her face.”

Ali claimed the dogs belonged to a friend in Ireland and were sent back and forth to be bred. But after finding a portable dog crate and treadmills adapted for dogs in a locked shed, Officer Jonas passed on his concerns to the RSPCA’s Special Operations Unit - a taskforce which investigates serious and organised animal crime.

The team - led by Inspector Kirsty Withnall - began to gather information and intelligence on Ali, leading to a police search warrant on 14 March 2022. Two dogs - Dotti and Oscar - were seized and placed into RSPCA care. Dog fighting paraphernalia, including a weighing kit, ‘break sticks’, and ‘flirt poles’, were also recovered from Ali’s home, as well as a DIY vet kit.

The vet kit contained skin staplers, IV kits, bandages, steroids, antibiotics and painkillers, she told the court. “I have seen homemade vet kits used by people that fight dogs before, this is because they will treat the dogs themselves rather than take the dogs to the vet and raise suspicion.”

A cell phone was also seized from Ali’s address, and investigators managed to get access to it using his year of birth as the password. “The phone content is completely dog-related,” Inspector Withnall said. “There are a large number of photos of bull terrier type dogs, some are heavily scarred or injured, including facial or leg injuries… There are photos and videos of different dog fights, the dogs and the pits they are held in have blood on them.”

It also turned up hours worth of WhatsApp voice notes, she continued, including messages about training and treating injured dogs himself. “He talks about putting dogs on drips and injecting them, the dogs hanging on,” she said, as well as a note where Ali claimed “they were notorious in the dog fighting world, and others were jealous of their status and how good their fighting dogs were”.

Deleted dog fighting videos were also recovered from his phone, some of which have been seen by NationalWorld. The investigation team collected enough evidence for three further warrants by Essex and Merseyside Police on 18 May 2022 - including at the Leadleys’ address in Takeley. Sixteen dogs were seized, including bully types thought to have been used for fighting - many being kept in a “dark, dingy and filthy” garage.

They also found a blood-spattered dog fighting pit, which inspectors recognised from photos on Ali’s phone. Leadley told the court that the image showed two dogs mating - but forensic tests later revealed the blood in the pit came from at least five different dogs.

Speaking outside of court following the verdicts, RSPCA special operations Chief Inspector Ian Muttitt said the phone had been a “goldmine” of evidence. Information on the phone also linked most of the defendants together, he said, and investigators could see they had been involved in at least four dog fights; one in Essex at the Leadleys’ property, one in Ireland, and one in France - for which they flew into Bordeaux. The other fight was held at an unknown location in England.

While some of the dogs in the match reports were seized and taken into RSPCA care, others mentioned were unable to be found. This included Bonnie - seen at Ali’s property by inspectors - who according to a match report had lost a lot of blood and suffered two possible broken legs in a fight. Another mentioned in the messages, Olivia, was revealed to have died from her injuries.

In another voice message, Ali said he intended to reschedule the fights if he got the dogs back from the RSPCA. Chief Inspector Muttitt added: “We had messages that showed that there was a planned fight for the weekend of 25/26 March 2022. Dotti and Oscar were due to fight later in the year but we executed our warrant on 14 March and seized both dogs from Ali’s property, so fortunately these fights never went ahead.”

The four will all reappear in court on 3 June for sentencing. Another man, who also stood trial, was found not guilty of two offences. The jury failed to reach a verdict on a third offence, and he will face further court proceedings.