Inside ‘Dr Death’ dog fighting ring: How married couple’s £1m ex-pub in picturesque Essex hamlet hid dark secret as venue for brutal bouts where animals were pumped with steroids to compete for £100k prize pots in blood-soaked fight pit
Life was good for Billy and Amy Leadley. The couple lived in a £1million former pub in a tiny hamlet surrounded by rolling countryside, while selfies on social media portrayed them as perfect parents as they played with their two young children.
Most locals assumed Billy’s success in the building trade – he is a director of a limited company – had allowed them to move into the desirable property in idyllic Bambers Green, Essex.
But a police raid exploded that myth. Hidden in the garage of the couple’s sprawling property was a dog fighting pit, measuring 12ft by 8ft and spattered with the blood of an unknown number of pitiful and terrified animals that had been mauled, maimed and, in some cases, killed during bloody bouts.
With prizes of £5,000 typical in the horrific underground ‘sport’ – and up to £100,000 in some cases – locals now wonder how much of the house was paid for by the bloody spectacles.
And the Leadleys weren’t even top of the tree in their bloodthirsty gang.
Billy and Amy Leadley lived in a £1 million former pub in a tiny hamlet in the countryside
The home of Amy and Billy Leadley where scenes of cruelty took place
Most locals assumed Billy’s success in the building trade – he is a director of a limited company – had allowed them to move into the desirable property
The pit where dogs were forced to fight each other, sometimes to the death
The terrified animals were kept in metal cages in the garage
A dog is seen looking out from its kennel in a metal cage at the property
Dogs were trained to fight and kill each other at the couple’s home
The picturesque house is tucked away among fields and countryside
Kingpin was Philip Ali, known as Dr Death in the dog fighting fraternity. Whether this was for his role in the sport or his conviction for attempted murder – for which he received a 15-year jail term – isn’t clear.
Ali’s ‘right-hand man’ was Stephen Brown, who was responsible for providing rudimentary medical care for horribly injured dogs to avoid them coming to the attention of the authorities.
During a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, a jury heard how the dogs were put on 12-week fight training programmes to get in shape for battles to the death, using treadmills, weight collars and other cruel equipment.
Bouts took place not just in England but also in the Republic of Ireland and France.
Indeed, one photo shows members of the gang celebrating during a booze-fuelled meal in Bordeaux after they won an ‘international show’ in November 2021.
Personal trainer Billy Leadley who had a dog fighting pit in his home in Bambers Green, near Takeley in Essex, was jailed for a total of four years for 12 different offences
Amy Leadley (pictured) who was not directly involved in the ring, was sentenced for various offences linked to keeping a premises for dog-fighting and not caring for the animals properly
Phillip Ali (left) also known as Dr Death has been sentenced to four years in prison. Stephen Brown (right) who was his ‘right-hand man’ was jailed for two years and six months after he was found guilty of five offences under the Animal Welfare Act
One gruesome match report said there was ‘blood from both females everywhere’
Much of the key evidence in the case came from a phone belonging to Harris Ali, 67 from Chigwell in Essex, who was known as Dr Death. This included photos and videos of dogs and gruesome match reports detailing how the animals were set upon each other
All have now been jailed for a total of more than 11 years – with the exception of Amy, 39, after the sentencing judge noted: ‘Someone has to look after the children.’
The case exposes the disturbing trade in dog fighting, which was outlawed in the UK in 1835 but is going through a resurgence at present.
The number of reported incidents surged by a third between 2020 and 2023, with around 2,000 known bouts during that period.
The gang’s illicit ‘hobby’ was revealed when the RSPCA received a report about concern for a dog’s welfare at 67-year-old Ali’s neat semi-detached house in a quiet suburban road in Chigwell, Essex.
A visit from an inspector in August 2021 unearthed tell-tale signs, including scars on dogs’ faces and the treadmills used to keep them literally fighting fit.
Two dogs are seen fighting in the pit during one of the gruesome battles
The gang built an outside arena for dog fights during a trip to France
The Dog Repair Book found at Stephen Brown’s property
An investigation by the charity’s Special Operations Unit, named Operation Ghoul, produced evidence that allowed Metropolitan Police officers to raid Ali’s home – unlocking the secrets of his gang’s gruesome business in all its gory detail.
Among the items they seized were break sticks, used for separating fighting dogs, flirt poles, which have a rope attached and are used for training, and dog shock collars.
Elsewhere, there was a vet kit containing steroids used to beef up the four-legged combatants, antibiotics, an IV kit for fluids, and skin staplers.
A ‘gold mine’ of information on Ali’s phone included travel plans for fights at home and abroad.
There were also videos of dogs and horrific match reports, including one in which Ali could be heard saying: ‘Bonnie now getting tired. Loss of blood and one of her front legs has been broken… possibly both and then she starts to lay down and it’s going one way.’
Ali’s convictions stretch back to the early 1980s when he was done for poaching and theft.
In 2007 he and his son Mathew were both jailed for 15 years after they were convicted of attempted murder.
The pair dragged Richard Cabby, 34, from a van in Dagenham, east London, on Christmas Day 2005 and beat him with a baseball bat and lump hammer before he was stabbed 17 times in the street.
The brutal assault stemmed from a dispute over Mr Cabby’s access to his two children after their mother married Mathew.
Left paralysed, he later died from complications caused by pressure sores and incontinence, which caused septicaemia.
RSPCA vets found dogs covered in scars where their skin had been torn and broken
One of the dogs, eight-year-old bull breed Jane (pictured) – who was removed from one of the pens in the garage at the Leadleys’ home – has been settling into a loving foster home
A dog called Dotti in a crate, taken from Phillip Harris Ali’s phone
This match report details one dog going ‘deep in to the throat’ of another dog, which has suffered a ‘kennel accident’ a just a few days prior
This report, in all capitals, described a dog doing a ‘good job’ of ‘taking out’ another animal
Speaking after the gang were convicted in April, Mr Cabby’s father Sid, who lives with wife Colleen, said Ali was ‘evil and dangerous’ and should never have been released from prison.
He added: ‘There’s some cruel people who walk this earth but I can’t understand why he’s going after defenceless dogs now. Some people are sick.’
Violence – albeit a legal form – also played a major role in the life of 38-year-old Billy Leadley, who used the alias of Tony Stellios to boast to other sick fans about his dogs and dish out breeding advice.
In court, he was described as being involved in personal training. MailOnline can reveal he was a coach at FightSportsUK in Harlow, which describes itself as a ‘full-time fight academy providing classes in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, mixed martial arts, Muay Thai and boxing.’
Co-defendant Brown, 57, is another gang member with previous convictions, although the judge said they were not connected to animal welfare.
The brutality of the gang’s lucrative pastime was laid bare in court, with the jury hearing members’ enthusiastic match reports about how animals had bitten each other ‘in the throat’ or been ‘shaken hard’.
In a voice note on his phone, Ali could be heard him criticising another handler about how their dog, Olivia, would have survived with the right care.
‘I was telling the boy with Olivia ‘You’ve got to use a stomach liner’. I told everyone to use Pepto-Bismol – no one listened,’ he said.
‘She lived all that time, then she is throwing up – she is sh***ing through the eye of a needle because her stomach has gone all ulcerated.’
Laughably, during the trial, Billy Leadley – who had 16 dogs living in ‘filthy’ conditions seized from his home – claimed the fighting ring was used for ‘mating or playing’.
He also insisted some injuries were the result of fox and rat bites. A vet explained the old wounds displayed ‘classic scarring patterns from engaging in prolonged fights with other dogs.’
Animals were specially trained for the fights using treadmills, weighted collars, steroids and painkillers
For their barbaric treatment, the gang will serve a combined total of over 11 years behind bars
The dogs in their custody endured brutal training regimes which included being starved to fighting weight before taking part in fights – sometimes to the death
In all, 19 dogs were taken into care by the RSPCA. Four had to be put to sleep, either for health and welfare reasons or because of their dangerous behaviour. Others are undergoing specialist rehabilitation.
Sentencing the gang, Judge Jamie Sawyer spoke of their ‘shocking level of barbarism’, adding: ‘Dogs were treated as a commodity by each of you.’
Ali, who was convicted of ten offences under the Animal Welfare Act, was jailed for five years.
As he learned his fate, a man in the public gallery stood up and shouted at the judge: ‘You f****** idiot.’
A reporter who approached the family home yesterday had to leave after a shaven-headed and shirtless man emerged and shouted threats.
Billy Leadley received four years for 12 offences, and Brown 30 months in relation to five charges.
Amy Leadley – whose husband put his arm round her waist, tenderly kissed her on the cheek and whispered in her ear as she was sentenced – received an 18-month community order, 200 hours of unpaid work and 25 days’ rehabilitation activity.
A resident in the Leadleys’ village told MailOnline: ‘It was a real shock when we all found out that a dog fighting ring was being run from the house. This is a quiet village – about as far from dog fighting as you can think.
‘We’re all really happy that Billy has been jailed and Amy found guilty. I punched the air when I found out. There’s a lot of dog lovers in this village and we’ve all been appalled at what was going on.’
Another man, Paul McClean, 43, of Merseyside, was fined £100 after admitting keeping a pit bull dog.
He was also banned from keeping dogs for three years, while the other defendants received ten-year bans.
An RSPCA spokeswoman said: ‘The dogs were kept in poor conditions with little interaction with the outside world, apart from when they were taken to fight another dog in bloody bouts that often ended in serious and fatal injuries.
‘They had never experienced what it’s like to curl up on a sofa and feel safe, or the fun of running through a grassy field or chasing a ball.’
A recent Channel 4 documentary called Untold: Inside Britain’s Dog Fighting Gangs, revealed dog fighting can be ‘more lucrative than dealing drugs’.
Members of the underworld involved in the illicit trade described losing dozens of dogs each and outlined gruesome injuries including ears being torn off, broken legs, stomach lacerations and even ‘snout breaking’, an injury that leaves the poor animal unable to use its mouth.
The international sport stretches to Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria and Moldova, which have secret networks of trainers who breed and prepare dogs before selling them on.
Secret chat rooms and encrypted apps such as Telegram are used to arrange sales and set up fights, which are held in warehouses, industrial wasteland and traveller camps.
