BRITAIN: The six men behind the kidnap, torture and murder of 16-year-old Mary-Ann Leneghan and the attempted murder of her friend will serve a total of 148 years in prison after being sentenced yesterday.
Mary-Ann, whose father is originally from Co Mayo, and her 18-year-old friend were abducted, raped, tortured and forced to smoke heroin and crack cocaine during a three-hour ordeal in Reading in May of last year.
The eight-week trial dominated the news headlines as harrowing details of the attack emerged.
Of the six men, Adrian Thomas was seen as the ringleader and sentenced to life, to serve a minimum of 27 years. Michael Johnson will also serve 27 years, as will brothers Jamaile and Joshua Morally.
Llewellyn Adams will face at least 23 years in jail before he can be considered for parole and Indrit Krasniqi will also spend 23 years behind bars.
During the trial at Reading Crown Court that began last January, it was revealed that four of the men had been on probation at the time of the attack.
"After an ordeal lasting some three hours, they were bundled back into the boot of a car before being driven off in haste to be murdered at dawn," Mr Justice Penry-Davey told the six. "Drugs breed violence, those who deal drugs show a readiness to use weapons including guns."
Johnson had pleaded guilty during the trial but the other five had denied all the charges. All the men were in their late teens or early 20s when they attacked the two young women. The girls were burned with cigarettes and had boiling sugared water thrown at them which stuck to their skin.
In detailed testimony the jury were told of Mary-Ann's last moments. "Mary-Ann was crying. I didn't cry because we were told throughout the whole ordeal we were going to die so by that point I probably accepted it and I didn't want to give them the satisfaction of crying," the 18-year-old friend said. She has not been named for legal reasons.
During the trial the prosecution said the two friends were targeted in revenge for a drug-related attack on Thomas.
All but Adams were found guilty of raping Mary-Ann Leneghan's friend.
When police found Mary-Ann's body on May 7th 2005 in Prospect Park, Reading, she had suffered 40 stab wounds. Her friend, who was shot in the forehead, was left for dead but recovered to give evidence.
The revelation that four of the men convicted in connection with the killing had been on probation at the time helped prompt British Home Secretary Charles Clarke to say he would review the system and tighten the rules.
A spokeswoman for Mr Clarke last night declined to comment to The Irish Times on the sentences. However, she pointed out that the home secretary, in a statement to the House of Commons earlier this month, announced measures he intended to take "to protect the public from dangerous offenders".
These included the setting up of a national register of violent offenders and "violent offender orders", which would seek to control the movements of certain offenders after they leave prison.
He also announced plans to ensure that all released prisoners are supervised by probation officers until the end of their original sentences.