It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
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The night terror came to Reading, UK
Six men have been convicted of murdering 16-year-old Mary-Ann Leneghan, who was abducted, raped and killed in Reading.
All six have also been convicted of the kidnap and attempted murder of her 18-year-old friend - who miraculously survived the horrific ordeal and gave evidence against the gang.
She endured hours of torture and rape before seeing her best friend stabbed to death by her side - and then she was told it was her turn.
When the gun was put to her head, she prepared to die.
But the bullet which was meant to kill her shattered before entering her skull.
She blacked out but was still alive.
Entering Reading Crown Court eight months later to face the accused the teenager, now aged 19, looked defiant.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was given the choice of sitting behind a screen while giving evidence but declined.
Instead she turned around to stare at the six men sitting in the dock.
She had been sitting in the back seat of a Renault Clio outside the Wallingford Arms public house in Reading on 6 May, with her friend Mary-Ann and another girl, when the door was flung open and she was dragged out.
She went on to describe how they were bundled into the boot of another car and driven to a nearby guesthouse.
Once inside room 19 at the Abbey House Hotel, the girls' nightmare began.
She was clear and coherent, but struggled to give any lengthy answers, as she described how they were kept there for three hours while members of the gang - armed with knives and guns - raped and tortured them.
The teenager said the floor was covered with towels to make sure their blood would not stain the carpet.
She went on to describe how she heard Mary-Ann being raped in the shower room.
The girl heard one man say from inside the bathroom: "Stay away from the wall because her blood is going to go on it."
Despite having to put up with seeing the men - now sitting surrounded by guards in the dock - snigering and making faces, she carried on calmly describing the torture she and her friend had endured.
As well as being hit, punched and stabbed, the two friends were made to strip naked, had boiling water thrown over them and were made to smoke heroin and crack cocaine.
The girls were raped and tortured for three hours inside room 19.
She remembered seeing Mary-Ann in a corner of the room being poked with a knife and stabbed in the stomach, with the men surrounding her and laughing.
But on the second day of giving evidence things got too much for her.
Describing how she was raped, Mary-Ann's friend broke down in tears.
She said at one point a gun was put in her mouth and she was told: "This is what you're going to get later."
Their tormentors then decided to move on to the final steps of their plan and the girls were driven to Prospect Park.
Mary-Ann had 40 stab wounds and her throat had been cut.
They were ordered to kneel on the ground "side-by-side" and told to put pillow cases over their heads.
In graphic detail she described how Mary-Ann was stabbed all over her body by 19-year-old Michael Johnson as she lay curled up in a ball on the grass.
She said he flew into a rage because Mary-Ann would not sit up so that he could slit her throat.
"They said something about wanting her to die slowly," she explained.
Preparing to die, Mary-Ann's friend knew her last memory would be seeing her friend, who she had known for 10 years, being "butchered" in front of her eyes.
A gun was then put to her head, and she was asked "Are you ready to die?" before it was fired.
Both girls were left for dead. The fragments of shrapnel remain lodged in Mary-Ann's friend's skull.
Mary-Ann's friend survived and staggered out of the park to flag down a passer-by.
Mary-Ann's body was found on the morning of 7 May. She had been stabbed more than 40 times and her throat had been slit.
Despite the gunshot wound, her friend survived and went on to become the prosecution's most vital witness.
But she still bears the scars of the bullet that was meant to end her life.
Some of the fragments of shrapnel, which became lodged in her skull after it shattered, remain there today.
After the gang was convicted of her friend's murder, the Crown Prosecution Service praised her courage.
Reviewing lawyer Paul Harrison said: "To relive such a traumatic ordeal while facing the perpetrators took tremendous courage.
"She turned the tables in court. Suddenly the victim was strong and the attackers were vulnerable."
Six men have been convicted of murdering Mary-Ann Leneghan, who was abducted and killed in Reading after being held in a hotel and subjected to a horrific ordeal. Who were these men?
The Ringleader
Adrian Thomas, 20
Known by the street name Redz, Thomas was the ringleader and it was his decision to go to Reading, find Mary-Ann and her friend, and rape, torture and kill them.
South London drug dealer Adrian Thomas was drawn to the Oxford Road area of Reading like a bee to a flower.
In early April 2005 he rented a cheap flat in the name of Michael Brown and began dealing drugs to the local addicts.
Two weeks later Thomas was attacked in the flat by a number of local men, who robbed him of money, a mobile phone and his stash of drugs.
He told his friends he would be returning to Reading to "sort it out".
It took three weeks for Thomas to find five friends, including a driver, who were willing to take part in the sickening revenge mission.
At his trial, Thomas declined to give evidence.
Michael Johnson, 19
Michael Johnson took an active role on the night of the murder. He was involved in the abuse in the hotel room and was one of the group who took the girls to Prospect Park.
The surviving girl identified Johnson as being the man who stabbed Mary-Ann with a flick-knife. She said Mary-Ann rolled into a ball and began to cry, but Johnson continued to stab her all over her body.
Faced with a wealth of evidence against him, Johnson, of Keevil Drive, Southfields, south west London, changed his plea to guilty to murder halfway through the trial. He also admitted attempted murder and kidnap, but continued to deny rape.
Johnson, who declined to give evidence at his trial, had spent much of his childhood in care and made confessions to his social worker after the murder.
Joshua Morally, 23
Joshua Morally was a cousin of Adrian Thomas and they were very close.
He was involved in most of the ****** abuse of the two girls, and Mary-Ann's friend recalled him hitting her with a metal pole.
The court was told that it was Joshua, of Brook Close, Balham, south London, who made his living as a crack dealer, who had cut off Mary-Ann's friend's hair.
At one point he said to the girls: "You're going to die, I hope you know that."
Later he was one of those who took the girls to Prospect Park.
Jamaille Morally, 22
The court heard that Joshua Morally's brother, Jamaille, was involved in all of the most sickening aspects of the girls' ordeal and at one point, in the hotel room, stuck a gun into Mary-Ann's mouth.
Mary-Ann's friend said it was Jamaille, of Brook Close, Balham, south London, who shot her at point blank range, having asked her: "Are you ready to die?"
A bloody sheet from the hotel where the girls were abused was found hidden under his moped outside his home in Balham, south London. Morally claimed it had been planted there.
His counsel, Michael Borrelli QC, admitted his client had initially lied to the police, but added: "The fact that he has been proved a serial liar does not mean to say that he is guilty of all or some of these offences."
The trial heard that his mother, Veveth, had disowned him after learning of what happened.
But Morally himself told the jury: "I did not go the park. I did not shoot Mary- Ann's friend. I did not do the things people are saying I have done."
The jury clearly believed he was lying again.
Indrit Krasniqi, 18
An orphan who was originally from Kosovo, Indrit Krasniqi played a lesser role than his co-defendants in the events of the night of 6 and 7 May.
But he confessed to stubbing out cigarettes on the girls and pricking them with a knife while they were in the hotel room.
Krasniqi, of Oxford Road North, Chiswick, west London, later rang his social worker, Claudette Campbell, and confessed to his involvement in the attack.
She said he also told her: "One of the girls was put on her knees and shot in the back of the head."
When she asked him what he knew of the killing he said he was there but he did not have anything to do with it.
Llewellyn Adams, 24
Llewellyn Adams was the driver who brought the gang to Reading from London in a red Nissan Primera.
His barrister, Anthony Arlidge QC, claimed Adams was the "the odd one out" and did not deserve to be convicted of murder or rape.
He said his client was studying for a degree in IT and music and working part-time in a supermarket at the time of Mary-Ann's death.
Adams, of Old Hospital Close, Balham, south London, finished stacking shelves at Sainsbury's at 10pm that night and then went off to pick up his friends.
Mr Arlidge claimed: "If he knew they were going to rape the girls and kill them he would never have gone in a month of Sundays.
"He does bear a heavy moral responsibility for what happened, but a moral and a legal responsibility are not the same thing. His failure to drive off was inexcusable. His failure to report the matter to police was inexcusable and he recognises that."
Mr Arlidge said his client, who had known Jamaille Morally since primary school, was the only one who had apologised to the families of the two girls for what happened that night.
This young lady has more guts than most men by facing these
murderous punks.
As tragic as this story is, and as cynical as I can be, if this were to
happen in the US there would be people blindly defending these
"misunderstood youth." There would be every reason in the book
thrown out there as to why they did it, completely forgetting the
fact that they chose to do it.
It's sick. If they're guilty I hope they never see freedom again.
this fvckin sick i almost vomited these sick motherfuc...s
deserve the same fait i hope they get porked in prison until there large intestin is blown out!!!!!
i like to slit eachone of these pieces of sh!ts throats myself!!!!!!!!!!!
By the way what kinda treatment do these sick rapists and women killers get in prison across the pond??????????????? here in the US they are definaly turned into someones b!tch!!!!!!!!!!!!
at a "no guns for anti gun people" rally...armed...eating a krispy kreme donut...burping...
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Executing these scumbags would be the equivalent of putting down a rabid dog, or throwing out the garbage. It would not lower society to their level, for they are the ones lowering society by their continued existence.
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The night terror came to Reading, UK
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