Leah Betts

Leah Sarah Betts (11 November 1977 – 16 November 1995) was a schoolgirl from Latchingdon in Essex, England, United Kingdom. She is notable for the extensive media coverage and moral panic that followed her death several days after her 18th birthday. On 11 November, she took an Ecstasy tablet, and then drank approximately 7 litres of water in a 90 minute period. Four hours later, she collapsed into a coma, from which she did not recover. The press reported that Betts' death was an example of the dangers of illegal drugs in general, and ecstasy in particular. Her 45-year-old mother Dorothy May Betts had died of a heart attack in 1992, but, otherwise Betts was from a quite ordinary family; she lived with her father Paul Betts (an ex-police...