| Mary-Ann Leneghan | Six men were convicted in 2006 of Mary-Ann Leneghan's murder a year earlier. Mary-Ann and a friend were abducted in Reading, subjected to a three-hour ordeal of torture and rape in a hotel room, then taken to Prospect Park in the boot of a car. Mary-Ann was killed but her friend, who was shot at point blank range, survived. |
Tony Thomas spoke to BBC Radio Berkshire's Andrew Peach about the role of fathers and gun crime:
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I don't know if I'll ever see Adrian again. He's still playing silly buggers in prison. This is what happens when kids are lost, they don't have a proper sense of morals. Had any one of those boys [on the night of Mary-Ann Leneghan's murder] had a reasonably decent set of morals, they'd have known when to pull out of that situation and go home. I knew he was wayward and he was behaving in a way that suggested he could fall victim to something like this. I feel disgusted. Words can't explain how something like this affects me. I'm so, so sorry about it. Fringe dad In one sense he's a perpetrator and he's been a very bad person, but in his youth I feel he should've had certain sets of morals and principles which possibly could have stopped what happened.
 | | Mary-Ann: murdered in Reading's Prospect Park |
I was a fringe dad in his life, really. I couldn't actually talk to him, he wasn't receptive if I wanted to go and talk to him. We had an estranged sort of relationship even though I was within 15 or 20 minutes' walk of him. That's probably part of why things went wrong for him. Positive male influence is a big part of our children's lives. If anyone out there doesn't know that, then go into the prisons and for the majority of men - and girls - in prison, fathers are a big, big issue in their lives. Status symbol We've got some useless men in this world and most men should be encouraged to do their part with their children. That father thing is vitally, vitally important.
 | | Adrian Thomas: one of six found guilty |
That doesn't mean there's any one solution to things like gun crime - it lies in a combination of things, like children and their rights, the lack of fatherhood and so on. But the solution isn't just prison. Most people with common sense know that for kids going to prison it's almost like a status symbol. Going to prison alone is not enough. Even in prison they need some form of assistance in order to rehabilitate themselves. Most of the time it's left solely up to the system. | 
