Starring in porn let me flee abusive ex, says mother

Paul Hewitt – who is 16 years older than Leah Brookes – was jailed for 11 months at Wolverhampton Crown Court earlier this month, claiming to have been sent into a rage by the discovery his lover of two-and-a-half years made porn films and wanted to appear in more of them.

Leah has now waived her right to anonymity to 'put the record straight' about her work in the sex trade and how it transformed her life for the better.

She admitted appearing in hundreds of amateur and home-made films before progressing to professional adult movies for which she was paid £800-a-time. She featured in up to 20 of the films that each lasted up to an hour and are sold through a subscription website.

And Leah, who said she had 10,000 followers on Twitter, insisted: "Paul was fully aware of the work I was doing and encouraged it. He even appeared in some home-made movies to sell on the website I use to do work."

She continued: "I started working as a webcam model not long after beginning the relationship. He introduced me to the industry and encouraged me to work constantly on the webcam.

"Paul took control of my Twitter account and took pornographic photos – some of which he was part of – to use as a promotion to gain more work for me."

Leah revealed: "He is a very manipulative, controlling and violent man. In the two-and-a-half years we were together he cleverly made me segregate myself from friends and family.

"Before we met I was a very happy, bubbly young woman with a bright future. I worked full-time as a support worker for adults with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour.

"But afterwards I became so withdrawn and depressed I left work. He wanted me to work in the sex industry and took control of the money I earned, often spending it playing poker.

"I once gave him £4,000 for a car which he blew at the casino. I was in such a bad place at one stage I even made an attempt to take my own life.

"Then I started to enjoy what I was doing. He had not expected that. I treated it as a business rather than some seedy backstreet trade.

"The work is done in a professional way and it gave me confidence and independence.

"I moved out of the flat I had previously shared with him, got my own apartment and started taking control of the money I was earning, which he did not like."

Trouble flared when she arrived back later than he had ordered from a film shoot in Sheffield.

She explained: "I decided to stay for an extra shoot and returned five hours later than he had told me to.

"It made no difference to him because he had been out all day anyway but he felt he had lost his hold of me, which is why he threw out those belongings of mine that were left at his place and spat at me. A week later he damaged my apartment, even making an attempt to set it on fire. This was because I wasn't begging to go back to him as I had done in the past. I also shot some more porn movies and he found out because I posted some pictures on Twitter."

The court heard that Hewitt, from Sister Dora Gardens, in Wednesbury Road, Caldmore, Walsall – who admitted putting a person in fear of violence through harassment and two cases of criminal damage – went on a wrecking spree at her home, ripping up pictures of the pair together and littering the floor with them.

He cut the landline phone to the property – also in Walsall – while bombarding her with threatening text messages for three days. Leah, who has since moved to another address in the West Midlands, concluded: "He was much older than me and used my naivety to his advantage, but this eventually backfired when I stood up and began to take control of my own life.

"Now I am slowly getting things back on track. I do not do porn movies anymore but I would again if I needed the money. I just would not do them all the time, which is what Paul wanted me to do. I do not regret doing the work. I earned loads of money and was given the confidence to finally stand on my own two feet. I have got a lot to thank that part of the sex industry for."