CONVICTED (2024) | Philip Harris Ali, born 29 December 1956, of 399 Manford Way, Chigwell IG7 4AT, Stephen Albert Brown, born 28 April 1967, of Burrow Road, Chigwell IG7, Billy Leadley, born 25 June 1985 and wife Amy Leadley (née Amy Walker), born 22 July 1984, both of The Fox, Bambers Green, Takeley, Bishop’s Stortford CM22 6PB.
The Essex-based dog-fighting ring was led by Philip Ali, nickname ‘Doctor Death’. Ali and others including co-defendants Stephen Brown and married couple Billy and Amy Leadley, abused dogs by filling them with drugs such as steroids and painkillers, before forcing them to tear each other apart in brutal fights.
The fights were hosted in the garage at Leadleys’ home where tests on a dog-fighting pit found blood stains from at least five different dogs.
All four were found guilty of a string of charges regarding the cruel battles.
Philip Ali, who previously served 10 years in prison for attempted murder, was found guilty of 10 offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, including four of keeping and/or training a dog for use in a fight, and two of causing a fight. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Stephen Brown, Ali’s right-hand man, and the ring’s ‘medicine man’, was found guilty of five offences, including three of keeping and/or training a dog for use in a fight. He was jailed for two years and six months.
Billy Leadley, a personal trainer, entered a guilty plea part-way through the trial to one offence of causing unnecessary suffering to a dog by failing to provide veterinary treatment for an injury. He ultimately entered guilty pleas to two additional charges: one of failing to meet the needs of nine dogs being kept outside, and owning a prohibited type of dog. The jury found him guilty of a further nine offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, including keeping a premises for use in fighting, taking part in a fight by refereeing, and keeping and/or training a dog for use in a fight. He was jailed for a total of four years
Amy Leadley, who works as a hairdresser, was found guilty of three offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, including keeping a premises for use in fighting. At the end of the trial, she entered a guilty plea to one offence of failing to meet the needs of seven dogs in their house, She was given an 18-month community order, 200 hours of unpaid work and 25 days of rehabilitation activity.
All four were banned from keeping or owning dogs for just 10 years.
The court heard how the gang forced dogs to endure brutal training regimes and starved them to fighting weight before putting them in bouts where they fought sometimes to the death,
RSPCA prosecution of Essex dog fighting ring members Philip Ali, Stephen Brown, Billy Leadley, Amy Leadley
The animals suffered serious injuries including broken legs and were kept in dirty conditions, some with no access to clean drinking water or proper bedding, and were left caged and alone for long periods.
Injured animals were treated by those in the fighting gang with makeshift medical kits rather than taken to qualified vets, in order to avoid detection. Aside from training dogs and arranging fights Stephen Brown supplied illegally sourced veterinary medication and equipment.
Ringleader Philip Ali first came to the attention of the RSPCA in August 2021 after concerns were raised about the welfare of a dog at his home.
Investigators soon uncovered evidence that he was involved in organising fights.
Officers saw four dogs at the property – a pet inside the house and three dogs being kept in kennels in the garden, one of whom had scars and scratches on her face. They also found a portable kennel and two dog running machines. This prompted an investigation by the RSPCA’s Special Operations Unit, a taskforce which investigates serious and organised animal crime.
When Ali’s home was raided on March 14, 2022, two dogs were seized by the Metropolitan Police and placed into RSPCA care. Dog-fighting paraphernalia, including a slat mill, two treadmills, four break sticks and two flirt poles, were seized.
A DIY vet kit containing items such as skin staplers, an IV kit, bandages, needles, steroids, antibiotics and painkillers were also found, while a seized mobile phone showed Ali had recorded hours of WhatsApp voice notes describing planning for fights.
Deleted videos on the phone showed graphic dog fights and injuries, while the phone also revealed match reports following organised fights, information relating to travel plans for fights, as well as messages planning fights, talking about training regimes, and discussing injuries dogs had suffered.
Ali managed multiple matches, including two where the losing animals were left with broken bones and serious bleeding.
Many dogs had been sent abroad to fight but never made it home.
The investigation led to warrants being executed at other addresses, including that of the Leadleys, Stephen Brown and a third address in Merseyside.
One dog was seized from the property in Merseyside.
Sixteen dogs were seized from the Leadleys’ address, including bull breeds thought to have been used for fighting, many being kept in poor conditions in a garage, plus two smaller breeds who were removed on welfare grounds from the house.
The court heard that Billy Leadley, who went by the aliases GSK, Green Street Kennels or Tony Stellios, flaunted his dogs to other fighters and shared breeding advice with them.
A slat mill, vet kit and books about dog fighting were all recovered from Brown’s address, while a flirt pole, two slat mills, weighted collars and other weight training equipment, plus four break sticks, were seized from the Leadleys’ property, where a 12ft x 8ft dog fighting pit was discovered in the garage.
Sentencing the gang, judge Jamie Sawyer said they showed “a shocking level of barbarism and callousness” for the dogs involved in the case.
He said the fights were “highly planned and without a care for the welfare of the animals in question”.
The judge told the defendants: “Dogs were treated as a commodity by each of you. They were playing pieces in your game.”
Speaking about the investigation, RSPCA Special Operations Unit investigator and chief inspector Ian Muttitt, who gave evidence during the trial, described the content of Philip Ali’s phone, which he said was “a goldmine of information and evidence.”
He said: “It contained graphic videos and images of brutal dog fights, match reports following organised fights, information relating to some of the men’s travel plans and accommodation for specific fights, as well as messages between a number of the defendants planning fights, talking about training regimes, and discussing the injuries dogs had suffered.
“The information on the phone linked most of the defendants together and we could see that they’d been involved in at least four dog fights; one held in Essex, at the Leadleys’; one in Ireland and one in France, for which they flew into Bordeaux. The other fight was held at an unknown location in England.”
Mr Muttitt said one of the gruesome match reports showed a dog named Bonnie, who was never located, lost a fight within 25 minutes and suffered two possible broken legs in the brawl.
Another fight, which took place between February 25 and 27, 2022 in Ireland, resulted in the death of a dog named Olivia from her injuries.
Mr Muttitt added that another fight involving two dogs named Dotti and Oscar was planned for the weekend of March 25 and 26, 2022, but it did not go ahead as the dogs were seized by police beforehand.
In a voice message sent by Ali and recovered from a phone, he said he intended to reschedule the fights if he got the dogs back from the RSPCA.
Another voice note, sent by Ali to Brown, said both Oscar and Dotti had been matched for fights later in the year, with prize pots of £3,000 and £5,000 respectively.
Mr Muttitt said: ‘These people don’t do it for money, some people go out and play golf on a weekend. These people go out and do this, it’s their passion.’
RSPCA chief inspector Ian Briggs said: “Dog fighting is a barbaric and horrific blood sport which has been illegal in this country for almost 190 years; yet there is a secretive and clandestine underworld where it continues to happen today.
“It has become a hobby, passion and source of entertainment for the people involved, but the reality is that the dogs involved suffer unimaginable pain, suffering, fear and distress.
“This gang dedicated their lives to breeding, preparing and training what they believed were champion fighting dogs.
“They enjoyed the build-up to a fight and the excitement of the bloody brawls, as well as trying to patch their injured and dying dogs back together after the event.
“Sadly, some of the dogs in this case suffered severe injuries and were never found but a mobile phone recovered as part of the investigation included match reports that detailed awful and fatal injuries suffered by some of the dogs involved.”
Steven Albert brown is his correct spelling of his name
Make me sick with those evil people 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Every one is a waste of space. Parents like that, the poor kids,one day they will know the truth about them, what a horrible thing to hear. ” My parents were part of a dog fighting ring “. Shameless.