A mum held prisoner in her own home has bravely spoken out about five years of abuse at the hands of her violent ex.
Leanne Barrett, 30, was routinely battered by drunken Denver Harris – even while heavily pregnant with both of her two children.
Chillingly, she said he would make sure to leave bruises where antenatal nurses couldn’t spot them, Leanne told Birmingham Live .
Harris once reportedly broke into her home, dragged her by her hair and kicked her in the face before locking her up in her own house for two days.
Then she was forced to lie to doctors, pretending she had been mugged at a cashpoint after suffering severe bruising to her eye socket.
The pair met on a night out through Denver’s sister, who was a friend of Leanne’s.
But he became violent just seven months into the relationship, when she was pregnant with their first child.
The mum-of-two said: "I was told by the hospital I may have trouble conceiving and I may need to be put on medication to help me.
"So when I found out I was pregnant with his child a few weeks later, I was happy because I felt like I was carrying a miracle.
"So no matter what, I knew I was keeping it.
"Seven months in he started hitting me, through my pregnancies he would hit me as well, in places where the nurses wouldn’t see the bruising at antenatal appointments."
"He beat me up regularly. It was mainly when he was drunk or under the influence of drugs.
"He would get paranoid and beat me up then immediately after cradle me and tell me he loved me, that he was sorry.
"Then when I was pregnant, he would run me a bath with candles, cook for me and hold doors open for me.
"He was clever in the way he did the things, the overly nice things kept me loving him.
"He made me think it was ok and that when he hit me he was probably just having a bad day or had too much to drink.
"I kept thinking it will be better soon and I couldn’t leave him at the time. But it just got worse and worse."
The couple were together for five years, during which Leanne suffered more abuse and fell pregnant with her second child.
Ms Barrett, who works as an area manager in care, added: "There was a restraining order in place, but he kept turning up at my address shouting through the door.
"On a few occasions, when he beat me up really bad and I needed an ambulance, I tried to escape and he would peel my hands off the back gate and drag me in by my arms scraping all my knees and legs.
"In March last year he followed me to the house after I finished work and broke in.
"He pulled me down to the ground by my hair and kicked me in the face. I had a bruised eye lip and chin.
"After he beat me, he kept me in the house beaten for two days. He got his mom to pick the kids up from nursery so no one would see my injuries.
"I went the hospital too a week later because I was still struggling to see but he made me tell them that a girl had mugged me outside a cash machine.
"The final straw was when I found out he’d been stealing from my children’s money boxes to fund a drug habit."
It was then, that Leanne plucked up the courage to raise the alarm with police.
"I called the police and I haven’t seen him since," she explained.
In August last year, Harris was jailed for four counts of harassment by breaching a restraining order, threatening messages and assault.
He was sentenced to three and a half years.
But now, with his release from prison on the horizon later this year, Leanne is fearing for her life in her current home with her children, aged four and five.
Birmingham City Council and police are currently working together to try to move her.
She has had a fireproof letterbox fitted along with security doors and protectors on her windows.
But the family need to move, she says.
"He will never stop trying to get to me and he is out in December so they need to pull their finger out.
"Three weeks ago I was offered a property, but it was next door to one of his friends.
"So I had to turn it down. Now my priority has gone back down a band and I’m not getting a look in with any of my bids."
A statement from Birmingham City Council read: "We have every sympathy for the circumstances of the applicant in this case and their desire to be housed safely.
"The Band 1 award was granted in recognition of the domestic violence that she was experiencing.
“The objective of this Band 1 award is to rehouse applicants with the most urgent need to move quickly. This scheme rule applies to all applicants in this highest band.
“However, anyone bidding for a home can request a review within 21 days of a refusal of the suitability of an offer.
“The applicant did not do that in this particular case but the council does have the discretion to consider late request if it is made.
“If a genuine risk can be proven when all related factors are taken into account, then Band 1 status could be reinstated.”
Leanne has given this advice to anyone suffering from domestic violence: "Leave as soon as you can and never look back. Best thing I did in the end I feel like the woman I used to be before I met him.
"It never gets better, it just gets worse and worse."
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