Murder of Mary-Ann Leneghan

In the early hours of 7 May 2005, 16-year-old Mary-Ann Leneghan was stabbed to death in Prospect Park, Reading, Berkshire. The previous evening, Leneghan and an 18-year-old friend had been kidnapped from a disused pub, the Wallingford Arms, by a group of six men led by Adrian "Redz" Thomas, a drug dealer from Battersea. The men — Thomas, Michael Johnson, brothers Joshua and Jamaile Morally, Indrit Krasniqi, and Llewellyn Adams — forced the girls into the boot of a car and drove them to the Abbey House Hotel in West Reading, where they were raped, drugged, scalded, and beaten over several hours.

Thomas believed Leneghan or her friend had set him up for an earlier robbery and assault at a flat he had rented in Reading, during which he was robbed and stabbed. An arson attack on the friend's home in the weeks before the kidnapping was later investigated for links to the case.

Between 03:00 and 05:00 on 7 May, the girls were driven around Reading before being taken to Prospect Park. There, Leneghan was fatally stabbed. Her friend was also stabbed and shot in the head but survived. After regaining consciousness, the friend made her way to a nearby road, where a member of the public called emergency services. Leneghan is reported to have died a short time before police arrived.

Following the attack, several suspects were arrested, including Jamaile Morally, who turned himself in to police, and Thomas, who was arrested by armed officers in Birmingham. A hotel night manager identified Thomas in an identity parade. Eight people were arrested in total in connection with the case.

The trial of six men began at Reading Crown Court in January 2006. All were charged with murder, attempted murder, multiple counts of rape, kidnapping, and assault. During the trial, Johnson admitted to murder, attempted murder, and kidnap; Leneghan's friend identified him as the killer. On 17 March 2006, all six men were convicted of murder, attempted murder, kidnap, and other related offences, with some cleared of rape charges. All received life sentences with minimum terms ranging from 23 to 27 years. The judge recommended that Krasniqi, a Kosovan refugee, be deported upon release.

In 2010, Krasniqi was convicted of a separate assault on a fellow inmate at HM Prison Wakefield and received an additional life sentence. Leneghan's funeral was held in July 2005, and a memorial garden was later established in her memory in Southcote, Reading.