'Broken hearted' dad of tragic ecstasy teen Leah Betts dies days after anniversary of her death
Paul Betts became a prominent anti-drugs campaigner following his daughter Leah's death The dad of a teen who tragically died after taking a single ecstasy pill at an 18th birthday party has died 30 years after her death.Paul Betts, a retired police officer, has died just days after the anniversary of his daughter Leah's death, after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease.The Mirror has exclusively revealed that, according to friends, he never fully recovered from the pain of losing Leah, who died in November 1995, after taking a single ecstasy pill during her 18th birthday party at her home.A family friend told the Mirror : “Paul is very sadly no longer with us. He never really got over Leah’s death, bless him. He was a lovely man and well respected. He died of a broken heart really.”Paul, a former Met Police firearms officer, moved to the Scottish Highlands with his wife Janet, a former nurse, in a bid to escape painful memories, as well as threats. His death, aged 74, came just a day after the 25th anniversary of the killings of three drug dealers who had controlled the supply of ecstasy in the nightclub where Leah’s tablet was bought.Teenager Leah Betts, died in Broomfield Hospital, Essex, after taking a suspected contaminated Ecstasy pill at her 18th birthday party(Image: PA Archive/Press Association Images)It has never before been reported, despite it happening at their home, in remote Scoraig, north west Scotland, on December 8, 2020. The death certificate, obtained by the Mirror, described Paul as a retired police inspector, with “Motor Neurone Disease” given as the cause.Speaking about his health battle just three months before he died, Paul revealed the disease had already caused him to lose mobility in both his arms and legs.He said: “Over the past three years I’ve been losing the ability to walk and losing strength. But I am a fighter. I’m applying the same fighting spirit to my own battle as I did to Leah’s, I’ve got to.”Speaking about how his wife Janet was helping him run their small croft, he added: “Jan has been my stalwart. She’s had to suddenly take over the manual work, the heavy work I used to do, and she’s found herself lumbered with it because I can’t do it, as well as running the house.”Paul and Janet famously released a photo of Leah, from Latchingdon, Essex, dying in a hospital bed to warn others about the dangers of the Class-A drug. The shocking image sparked a national outcry and triggered a huge police drugs crackdown.And on December 7, 1995, drug dealers Tony Tucker, 38, Pat Tate, 37, and Craig Rolfe, 26, were found shot dead in a Range Rover on a farm track in Rettendon, Essex. The crime became known as the “Essex Boys” murders, after a 2000 film of the same name starring Sean Bean.Paul and his wife felt forced to flee Essex in 2004 after he received death threats for waging a brave crusade against drug lords. It had seen him visit more than 2,000 schools to warn about the consequences of taking drugs. The image of Leah wired up to a life support machine was used on an anti-drugs billboard campaign with the slogan: “Sorted – just one ecstasy tablet took Leah Betts”. And a short film called Sorted was seen by an estimated 500,000 children.Paul Betts and his wife Janet pictured together after Leah's death in November 1995(Image: ExpressStar)Leah, the youngest of his four daughters, died on November 16, 1995, after her life-support machine was switched off. She had stopped breathing after collapsing in the bathroom in front of her horrified parents four days earlier.Leah’s death was later found to have been caused by drinking 12 pints of water, causing swelling on the brain, after drinking “glass after glass” after taking the ecstasy pill.Speaking to the BBC earlier this week about the impact the photo of Leah in intensive care had when it was released, Sarah Tinker, of the Essex Recovery Foundation said: “It was a very brave thing of the family to release that image. It was hard-hitting. It attracted huge national coverage and shocked a lot of people.”She added: "What this harrowing case has done is created much better governmental policies around testing and contaminated drugs. But we should remember Leah was a real person."She was so much more than the drugs she took and the sad, untimely death she had."
