Mary Ann Leneghan

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Mary Ann Leneghan

Mary Ann Leneghan (January 1989- May 7, 2005) was a sixteen-year-old English girl from Reading who was raped and murdered by a six-strong gang of drug-dealers and thieves in May 2005.

1 Crime
2 Political and media reaction
3 Criminals
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Crime

The murder gang

Leneghan and an unidentified eighteen-year-old female friend were abducted by the gang outside a pub in Reading on the night of 6th May 2005 after its leader, Adrian Thomas, 20, decided Leneghan had set him up to be robbed. The two young women were taken to room 19 of the Abbey House Hotel and subjected to three hours of sexual assault and torture with an iron bar, knives and boiling water mixed with sugar. They were also forced to smoke heroin and crack cocaine and told repeatedly that they were going to be murdered. During the early morning of 7th May the gang took the two young women to Prospect Park in Reading, where Leneghan was stabbed to death as her friend watched. Her friend was then shot in the forehead at point blank range. However, the bullet fragmented and although knocked unconscious she was not fatally injured. When she regained consciousness she raised the alarm.

The trial judge recommended that Thomas, Johnson and the Morally brothers should serve a minimum of 27 years before being considered for parole. This is expected to keep them all behind bars until at least 2032 and the ages of 56, 55, 46 and 47 respectively. He recommended that Adams and Krasniqi should both serve at least 23 years before being considered for release, which is expected to keep them behind bars until at least 2028 and the ages of 47 and 40 respectively.

[edit] Political and media reaction

After the six men were sentenced, there was strong criticism from the media and the political opposition when it was revealed that one of the killers was an Albanian man who had remained in Britain illegally, and four were on probation at the time of the crime.