Rebecca Leach, now 42, told her attackers ‘I know you remember me’
Rebecca Leach(Image: Birmingham Mail / Live)
A brave woman raped by men involved in a seedy child prostitution ring in Birmingham and the Black Country claimed there were more victims – and urged them to come forward.
Rebecca Leach courageously faced ‘pimp’ Paul Doyle, now 65, and ‘rich customer’ Tony Bayliss, 78, at Birmingham Crown Court as she told them ‘your cycle of abuse ends with me’.
She was just 14 when she was raped by both men in 1997 with the case investigated by West Midlands Police 20 years later.
READ MORE: ‘Pimp’ and children’s author jailed over prostitution of underage girls in Birmingham
Now 42 and living in a different part of the country, Rebecca waived her right to anonymity in a bid to encourage others she knew at the time to report the abuse they endured to the police.
Speaking to Birmingham Live, she said: “I hope other people can see this and come forward.
“I was in care in Staffordshire children’s homes, where all the other victims came from, around the same time.
“There are more people out there. I know 100 per cent there are more people out there.
“It has been difficult but worth it. I was prepared for it to take time. Historical cases can and it’s very hard.”
Rebecca was originally groomed as a teenager by another man known as ‘Raj’ who is now dead.
He physically abused and exploited her, as well as other young girls.
Anthony Bayliss(Image: Nick Wilkinson/Birmingham Live)
Rebecca met Bayliss for the first time when she was out in Walsall.
He wanted to be the first person to have sex with her and he was willing to pay to do so.
Rebecca, who was 14 at the time, didn’t want to but Raj told her she must.
Bayliss was a retired schools inspector and fledgling author who posed as a Channel 4 producer and drove a distinctive blue Rolls Royce.
He liked girls young and skinny – preferably virgins – and often picked up prostitutes on Birmingham’s Hagley Road.
Bayliss took Rebecca back to his large white house in Wolverhampton where he raped her, despite the fact she was crying and screaming for him not to.
In a separate incident she was also raped by Doyle as part of an ‘initiation’ to secure a job working for his escorting agency, which he operated from a taxi base in Digbeth in Birmingham.
Paul Doyle(Image: Nick Wilkinson/Birmingham Live)
Still aged 14, she ran out of the room in tears.
Rebecca went on to join the military aged 17 which she said ‘saved my life’.
She served in the Royal Artillery for seven years and the Adjutant General Corps (AGC) as a clerk for five years.
She continued working in the military as a civil servant until the police contacted her in 2017.
An investigation had been launched after another victim who had been pimped out by Doyle came forward.
Rebecca, now a married mother-of-three, travelled back to Birmingham to witness her attackers sentenced this week.
Reading her own statement in court she said the thing that ‘hurts me the most’ was having children of her own while knowing there were people out there like Bayliss and Doyle who looked at kids in a ‘sexual way’.
She described how her childhood experiences had made her over-protective as well as how some everyday tasks were extremely difficult.
“I can’t enjoy a picnic or a swim. Everyone is you in my mind,” said Rebecca, who has been left with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
But she vowed the abuse would not ‘define me’ as she defiantly told Bayliss and Doyle: “Even though you destroyed my childhood you haven’t destroyed my life.
“I have been waiting for this day to look you in the face for a very long time.
“Even though you still refuse to remember my name and my face, I know you remember me.
“I hope this memory will haunt you for the rest of your life.
“Remember, I will be walking free with my head held high.”
She added: “Your cycle of abuse ends with me.”
Paul Doyle (left) and Anthony Bayliss (right) have both been convicted of historic sex offences against two teenage girls in Birmingham, who were both in the care system
Bayliss, more recently of Stafford, was jailed for nine-and-a-half years having been convicted of two counts of rape.
Doyle, from Sheldon, Birmingham, received six-and-a-half years for indecently assaulting Rebecca – although the court was told his offence would today be classed as rape – and living off the prostitution of the second victim.
Reflecting on the punishments Rebecca said: “I didn’t feel like it was enough.
“I feel like justice has been served but it’s never going to be enough. At least they are off the streets.
“Hopefully this will give other people, other victims, a voice to come forward.
“Those people (Bayliss, Doyle and other perpetrators) were living their lives for 20-something years and getting away with it.
“The fact that it has taken eight years (since the investigation launched in 2017) to get to this point is quite frustrating.”
Rebecca admitted it was traumatising having to describe ‘the worst things that have happened in my life’ to strangers at the trial earlier this year, adding it took her a long time to recover from the experience.
But she was not put off by the fact Bayliss and Doyle were present in the dock.
“I wanted to face them,” Rebecca added.