THE six men who kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered the schoolgirl Mary-Ann Leneghan were each given quadruple life sentences yesterday.

The ringleaders of the drug-crazed gang were ordered to serve a minimum of 27 years in jail before being considered for release. The case highlighted some of the most serious failings of the criminal justice system and prompted Charles Clarke to promise an overhaul of the Probation Service.

Four of Mary-Ann’s killers were revealed to be on probation when they abducted and murdered the 16-year-old in Reading, Berkshire, last May. One, Indrit Krasniqi, was an illegal immigrant who should have been deported to Kosovo when he turned 18 three weeks before Mary-Ann was murdered in a park.

Mr Justice Penry-Davey, sentencing the gang at Reading Crown Court, said that Krasniqi, now 19, should be deported upon his release. The killers were discovered only because a friend of the murdered girl, who was abducted with her, survived their attempt to kill her.

The 18-year-old woman, who cannot be identified, was shot in the head at point-blank range but did not die. She lay unconscious beside the body of her friend for hours and, when she came to, staggered out of the park and raised the alarm.

She was able to tell the police who had attacked her and Mary-Ann, and went on to give crucial evidence at the trial of the six killers.

The teenager recounted how she and Mary-Ann knew the gang leader, Adrian Thomas, 20, a drug dealer known as Redz, and believed that he had planned to attack them in revenge for a robbery at his flat for which he blamed them.

Thomas and five accomplices took the girls to a hotel in Reading and subjected them to what the judge called “gratuitous torture” for three hours.

They were forced to smoke crack cocaine and heroin and were repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted. The two girls were beaten with an iron bar, burnt with cigarettes and scalded with boiling sugared water.

They then had pillowcases put over their heads, were bundled into the boot of a car and driven to Prospect Park. The 18-year-old was forced to watch as Mary-Ann was stabbed more than 40 times and fell dead on the grass. Her family has since planted an oak tree at the spot where she died.

One of the gang then shot the other girl in the head and they fled, believing that she was dead. The gang members were found guilty by a jury last month of murder, attempted murder, kidnap and rape.

Thomas, of Battersea, southwest London, was ordered to serve 27 years in jail as were Michael Johnson, 19, from Southfields, southwest London, Joshua Morally, 23, from Balham, South London, and his brother Jamaile, 22. Llewellyn Adams, 24, also from Balham, and Krasniqi, 19, from Chiswick, West London, must serve at least 23 years.

Thomas, Johnson, Jamaile Morally and Krasniqi were serving community sentences at the time of the murder.

Krasniqi, who came to Britain when he was 13, was the only one to display any emotion as the judge handed down the multiple sentences. He wept and then began laughing.

The judge, speaking to each of the killers, said: “You, Thomas, dealt in drugs and suffered violence as a result.

“You, Thomas, decided to repay violence with violence and collected a gang together to avenge the attack on you.

“You, Adams, provided the essential transport for the operation at all stages.

“You, Jamaile Morally, and you, Joshua Morally, enthusiastically joined up as enforcers and enlisted the further support of you, Johnson, and you, Krasniqi.

“Your gang of six was armed from the outset with guns, knives and some form of blunt instrument.

“You were equipped and prepared for serious violence and you set out and kidnapped as bait those two young women.

“Even if you, Thomas, believed that either of them was in some way involved in the earlier attack on you, what happened that night had not the remotest justification.”

Outside court Charles Harris, the murdered girl’s uncle, said that the family was satisfied with the sentences but disappointed that the six had been able to kill while supposedly under supervision. Mr Harris said: “They should have all been tagged and they should all have been on a curfew. That’s it.”

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