He’s been locked up again
Mark Naylor Humber Court Reporter
16:20, 22 Jul 2026
Leon Howlett, at Hull Crown Court(Image: Katie Pugh/Hull Live)
A violent and controlling bully who was jailed in 2023 after making his girlfriend’s life a complete misery has been locked up again after turning to crack cocaine dealing when he was released from prison. Father-of-four Leon Howlett “lost his home, all his possessions, every bit of furniture and even his clothes” after his previous jailing.
He later started selling drugs to make some quick money but the police soon stopped him in his tracks, Hull Crown Court heard. Howlett, 47, of Beckside Close, north Hull, but recently in custody on remand, admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply and possessing £840 cash as criminal property on May 29.
Soheil Khan, prosecuting, said that police executed a search warrant at a one-bedroom flat in Jack Harrison Court, Margaret Street, Hull, after receiving information. The flat was searched but the mobile phone of the man living there began ringing with calls from Howlett, who later turned up at the flats complex.
“He was detained at the lift of the premises,” said Mr Khan. Howlett confirmed that he was going to see the man.
“He reached into his pocket and tried to crush a substance in his hand but he was taken to the floor and his hand was forced open,” said Mr Khan. “The substance was confirmed to be crack cocaine.”
Howlett’s home and vehicle were searched. There was £840 cash in one of his socks and two packs of cocaine. In his bedroom was cocaine inside folded paper. There were bags of crack cocaine.
Howlett had convictions for 49 previous offences between 1996 and 2023. He had convictions for assault in 2004, possessing amphetamine with intent to supply in 1999, supplying cannabis in 2009 and offences of dishonesty.
Howlett had been jailed for six months in 2006 for supplying amphetamine. He had been jailed on August 4, 2023 for four years for using coercive and controlling behaviour and assaulting a woman, causing actual bodily harm. He was on licence at the time of the latest offences.
Giles Grant, mitigating, said that Howlett originally got involved in low-level social supply of drugs but this escalated. “This was a small operation,” said Mr Grant. “It was his operation.”
“There is a significant gap in his offending between 2009 and 2022.” Howlett was, however, jailed in 2023 after being convicted of domestic violence offences.
“He lost his home, all his possessions, every bit of furniture and even his clothes,” said Mr Grant. After Howlett left prison, he worked driving trucks but lost that work and had debts and a £900 overdraft. He turned to drug dealing.
Judge Richard Woolfall told Howlett: “It’s clear that you were involved in the supply of crack cocaine. This is effectively you selling direct to others. This was your operation.
“You were responsible for all of it. There was an expectation of a financial advantage. There is no evidence of high living. You involved yourself in serious offending.”
Howlett was jailed for three years. The £840 cash seized will be forfeited and given to the St Paul’s boxing club charity and the Space2BHeard project, Hull.
At the previous hearing in August 2023, the court was told that Howlett made his then girlfriend’s life a complete misery, including regularly stopping her going to the toilet, limiting how much food she ate and refusing to let her see her family, during the “ultimate campaign of humiliation”. He regularly assaulted and threatened the woman during a “horrible” five-year rule of fear.
She had been reduced to a “pathetic figure” by his overbearing behaviour and frequent “nasty” assaults. He used a baseball bat and a stick to threaten or attack her, pulled her hair out, poured water over her and controlled her money and benefits, the court heard that day.
He denied using coercive and controlling behaviour between December 29, 2015 and January 7, 2021 and assaulting the woman, causing actual bodily harm, between January 5 and 7, 2021, but he was convicted by a jury after a trial.
The court heard that Howlett “systematically and coercively” abused his ex-girlfriend physically and psychologically during the course of their relationship. It was finally reported to the police after an assault on January 6, 2021.
An anonymous 999 telephone call was made to the police reporting that a woman had been left bruised and battered and seemed to have had her hair ripped out. Police went to a house in Bransholme where the woman was living but, at first, neither the woman nor Howlett would open the door. Both eventually came to the door but refused entry to the police, who later forced their way in. Howlett denied that there had been any arguing or fighting.
She had a cut to her eye and could not walk properly. There was a visible cut on her left eye.
The woman was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary and was treated for a cut to the back of her head, cuts and bruises to her eye, bruises to the chest and swelling to an open wound on her left knee. She had two chipped front teeth.
The woman later told police that Howlett controlled her in many ways and had been doing so for some time if she did not do or say what he wanted. She claimed that she had been beaten and humiliated by him.
Beatings often included pulling out her hair and choking her with his elbow.
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