The British government's policies for managing dangerous offenders came in for fierce criticism yesterday after it was revealed that four of the gang who murdered Mary-Ann Leneghan had been under probation supervision.
Drug dealer Adrian Thomas (20) and fellow gang members Michael Johnson (19), Jamaile Morally (22) and 18-year-old Indrit Krasniqi, were all serving community sentences at the time the 16-year-old was stabbed to death and another teenager shot and left for dead in Reading, Berkshire, last May. Mary-Ann's father is originally from Co Mayo.
In the wake of the case, Britain's shadow home secretary David Davis accused the government of mishandling the probation service and highlighted a series of other recent high-profile killings by offenders being supervised in the community. "It is about time the government realised the shocking consequences of their policy of allowing dangerous criminals out of prison and owned up to their complete mismanagement of the probation service."
Home Secretary Charles Clarke described the case as "dreadful" and "disturbing", and said it was "vital" that lessons were learned to ensure public safety.
Thomas, Morally, Morally's brother, Joshua (23), and their friend Llewellyn Adams (24) were found guilty of the horrific killing at Reading Crown Court last week while Johnson confessed during the eight-week trial.
The case concluded yesterday, with Krasniqi also found guilty of murder and attempted murder. He was cleared on two counts of rape. Last week he was convicted of kidnap and assault.
At the end of the trial it was revealed that Thomas, Johnson, Morally and Krasniqi had been under probation supervision in south London at the time of the killing.
The trial had heard how Mary-Ann and an older friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were abducted in Reading in the early hours of May 7th last year. The killing was a revenge execution for a robbery which Thomas believed the girls had "set up".
After a three-hour ordeal of torture and rape in a hotel room, they were driven in the boot of Llewellyn Adams's car to nearby Prospect Park where Mary-Ann's friend was forced to watch as the younger girl was "butchered" in front of her.
As Mary-Ann lay dying, her friend had a gun put to her head, was told "Prepare to die" and was shot at point-blank range.
But as the gang fled back to south London she awoke, having "miraculously" survived, and went on to give evidence against her six attackers.
Having returned all the verdicts, the jury was told of five of the six men's previous convictions.
In 2004 Thomas was given community service for possessing heroin, cocaine and cannabis and then in November of the same year, magistrates in west London imposed an 18-month rehabilitation order for possessing cannabis as well as possessing a bladed article.
Johnson, then aged just 13, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in 2001 for abducting a 13-year-old boy with learning difficulties, hanging him upside down and beating him up.
In May 2002 Johnson was given a conditional discharge for assaulting a fellow care-home resident and was then given an 18-month detention and training order in July 2003 for assaulting two mini-cab drivers, affray and possessing an offensive weapon.
In October 2004 Jamaile Morally was given a community rehabilitation order for handling stolen goods. His criminal past includes convictions for possessing an offensive weapon, failing to surrender, obtaining property by deception and possessing cannabis.
Jamaile's brother, Joshua, was not on probation supervision at the time of the murder but has convictions dating back to 1999 for robbery, shoplifting and criminal damage. Krasniqi received a referral order in 2004 for two common assaults.
Adams was the only one of the six to have no previous criminal record.