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Les first appeared in 1997 with his wife Janice, teenage daughter Leanne (from his first marriage) and step-daughter Toyah (from Janice’s previous relationship), and they were known as the family from hell. Les had spent six months in Strangeways prison for breaking and entering. In 1998, Les discovered that he had a son, Greg. Greg turned out to be a psychotic and abused his girlfriend, Sally Webster, until he was imprisoned.
Les was frequently in trouble. He assaulted neighbour Curly Watts and was at loggerheads with another neighbour, Des Barnes, until one night when he helped Des out of a difficult situation. After the break-up of his marriage, he was sent to prison for six months for assaulting a police officer who was living with Les's wife Janice at the time.
Despite their constant rows and nagging, Les truly loved Janice (despite struggling to show it at times). When he embarrassed his wife by buying her a deep-fat fryer for their anniversary, it became obvious that their marriage was on the rocks. Over the years, the Battersbys calmed down, and Leanne fled after her young marriage to Nick Tilsley broke down after her abortion, and an attack due to her involvement with drugs. Toyah was raped in 2001 by a man she had trusted and often campaigned with. She re-built her life, but her new man made her best friend Maria Sutherland pregnant, and she decided to leave to London with her former love, Spider Nugent.
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