Jurors retrace murdered Mary-Ann's last steps

A jury trying six men accused of raping and murdering teenager Mary-Ann Leneghan retraced her final steps today.

The seven women and five men were taken in a convoy through the streets of west Reading, Berkshire, where they have been told that 16-year-old Mary-Ann and an 18-year-old friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were taken on a night of kidnap, torture, rape and murder last May.

Before walking down a tree-lined path to the spot where Mary-Ann was killed on the morning of May 7, the jury packed into a cramped hotel room where the prosecution say that the two friends were tortured for three hours before being taken out to die.

Mary-Ann was found dead, her body riddled with stab wounds, next to a copse in Prospect Park in Reading early that morning.

The jury, sitting at Reading Crown Court, has been told that the pair were abducted by a gang of men, bundled into the back of a car and driven to a hotel room.

Prosecutor Richard Latham QC told the jury yesterday that the girls were put through a violent and degrading ordeal, tortured with cigarettes, knives, a metal pole and boiling sugary water.

The Crown say that the pair were then driven to Prospect Park where Mary-Ann was stabbed to death and her friend shot in the head.

Opening the case yesterday, Mr Latham told the jury that Mary-Ann’s friend had recounted that the men said that they wanted the 16-year-old to die “slowly” while she herself was to be shot.

But Mary-Ann’s friend survived and staggered out to the Tilehurst Road, which runs along Prospect Park, where she was able to call for help from a passer-by.

Today, travelling in two coaches escorted by a police convoy, the jury travelled along Tilehurst Road to the park, where they stood for 10 minutes at the spot where Mary-Ann’s body was found.

Accompanied by Mr Justice Penry-Davey and prosecution and defence barristers - all without wigs – the jury stood at the impromptu shrine to Mary-Ann where members of the public have laid out a handful of bouquets, surrounding a newspaper cutting bearing a photograph of Mary-Ann under the word “murder”.

The convoy pulled up first at the car park of a Wickes DIY store on the edge of the town centre and walked the 150-yard distance to a second car park, that of the former Wallingford Arms pub.

The Crown says that Mary-Ann and her friend were sitting in a white Clio in the second car park when they were approached by members of a gang and forced to walk to a waiting car near Wickes.

It was there, the Crown says, that the pair were bundled into the boot of a Nissan Almeira and driven away to be attacked and ultimately killed.

The jury was then driven along Reading’s Oxford Road, accompanied by police outriders, stopping to note the location of two petrol stations which the Crown says members of the gang went to during the girls’ ordeal in the hotel room.

They were also shown the upstairs flat where, the prosecution says, Adrian Thomas was attacked by a separate gang, setting in train a sequence of events which were to lead to Mary-Ann’s murder.

The jurors were then driven to the Abbey House Hotel just off Tilehurst Road where the girls were allegedly tortured.

Yesterday, in his opening to the case, Mr Latham suggested to the jurors that they arrange themselves with eight people in the small room at any one time to give them a sense of what it might have been like during the girls’ alleged ordeal.

The jury was also shown a car park at the rear of the hotel where the the gang allegedly parked their car, entering Room 19 after booking in – a route which would have allowed the girls to be taken in without passing the front reception desk.

After spending around 45 minutes at the hotel, the convoy then moved on to Prospect Park where Mary-Ann’s body was found.

Among features which were pointed out to the jury during Mr Latham’s opening was a CCTV camera on the corner of a building in the centre of the park from which a blurry photograph was taken showing a car which it is believed was that used to take Mary-Ann to her death.

After spending time at the spot where Mary-Ann’s body was found, the jury moved off, returning to Reading Crown Court where tomorrow Mary-Ann’s friend is due to begin giving evidence.

Six men are on trial for the events of May 6 to 7, facing charges of murder, attempted murder, kidnap, rape and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

In the dock are brothers Jamaile and Joshua Morally, 22 and 23, of Balham, south London; 24-year-old Llewellyn Adams, also of Balham; 20-year-old Adrian Thomas, of Battersea; 18-year-old Indrit Krasniqi, of Chiswick; and 19-year-old Michael Johnson, of Southfields.

Yesterday Joshua Morally entered guilty pleas to charges of kidnapping the two girls but he denies murder, attempted murder, rape and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

The other five defendants deny all charges.

The judge then adjourned the case until tomorrow.