From good girl to ‘hot gyal’
What made a nice young girl turn bad?

Studious, well mannered and from a well-off family, it seemed Chanel Leslie was set for a bright and promising future. But things don’t always turn out good no matter what a person’s background.

“I was very good as a child. I was an A/B student. I always had good reports from school but when I hit year 8, I started following the ‘class clowns’ and eventually started hanging around older girls and troublemakers.

“It was fun watching teachers react to what students would do, so I would be disruptive in class, show off and want to be the centre of attention. I’d tell teachers to ‘shut up’ and when my friends would encourage me, I’d do it even more.”

Chanel’s rebellious streak went from inside the classroom to outside on the streets. But when she was at home, she pretended to be the model daughter.

“Me and my friends would pick fights with girls from other schools. We’d attack them with our shoes, umbrellas, and compasses. We’d punch and kick them and steal their phones - we just didn’t care. But at home I’d pretend to be good. When letters of complaint were sent home, I’d throw them away and if any of my teachers phoned, I’d answer and pretend to be my mum.

“One day we were sitting in the back of the bus and were looking for something to do, so one of my friends decided to set a woman’s hair on fire. The woman was hysterically trying to put the fire out with the help of other passengers. We were laughing because we didn’t see anything wrong with what we did. Someone called the police but we ran off before they arrived.

“Afterwards I realised that we could have seriously hurt that lady, so I decided to distance myself from those friends. I’d been with them for 2 years and it wasn’t getting me anywhere.”

But leaving them caused a backlash. The same girls, who just a few months ago were her friends, now turned on her.

“They’d ask me, ‘you think you’re too nice for us now?’ but I would just ignore them. There was a spot in Edmonton where all the school children would get on the bus. The top bunk of the bus was where all the fights would happen.

“I was seated up top a few seats in front of them and they were threatening me.

“Before I knew it, I was attacked from behind. They stabbed me with a compass, I was hit with umbrellas and belts and my hair was pulled out in clumps. They really beat me up. My shirt was covered in blood and I had a black eye and scratches all over my face. There were about 20 of them pounding me. If someone hadn’t helped, I’m sure they would have killed me.

“I felt so angry at what they had done and wanted revenge. I thought, 'Since being good was not doing me any favours - I’m not going down like this.’ I was determined to get back at them, especially the ringleader. The way I saw it, they had to pay for what they had done to me, so the next day I took my dad’s Stanley knife and bleach, determined to disfigure the girl.

“I told my so-called best friend how I was going to deal with the head bully and showed her what I had in my bag, but she grassed me up to the bully who then went and told the teacher. When I was pulled up by the head, she expelled me saying they could no longer have me in the school because I was a threat to other students.”

Chanel soon moved to another school but it wasn’t long until the fights flared up again.

“Those girls found out which school I moved to and fights broke out between us. There was a big incident where police had to be called in and even teachers were beaten up.”

Surprisingly Chanel was able to leave school having passed her GCSEs but leaving school was not the end of trouble in her life. Things were about to get even uglier.

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