Fifteen-year-old boy handed life sentence for murder of Dublin schoolgirl
A Court in Dublin has handed down a life sentence to one teenage boy and a 15-year term to another teenage boy for the murder of a 14-year-old girl in May 2018.
The body of Ana Kriegel was found in a disused farmhouse in a village to the west of Dublin on May 17, 2018 following an extensive search.
Her mother had reported her missing three days previously.
She was naked apart from the socks on her feet and a ligature made from distinctive blue builder’s tape which was found wrapped around her neck. There were various items of clothing strewn around the room.
Test results revealed that Ana had been the victim of an aggravated sexual assault and a vicious assault.
The police quickly arrested two boys, then aged 13.
In the first case of its kind in the Republic of Ireland, the two boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons because they are both minors, were tried in the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
Boy A and Boy B as they were known, both denied murder.
The trial, which started in April 2019, heard that the two boys gave varying accounts of their own and each other’s movements the day of the murder.
However, forensic experts presented DNA and other evidence connecting both boys to the murder scene. CCTV footage also showed both boys accompanying the young girl to the farmhouse.
The court also heard that Ana, who was born in Russia on February 18, 2004 and adopted by Geraldine and Patric Kriegél two and a half years later, had been subjected to an ongoing campaign of intimidation and bullying at school.
The jury of eight men and four woman delivered a unanimous guilty verdict on June 18 after six days of deliberations.
Earlier today, Justice Paul McDermott sentenced Boy A, 15, to life in detention, but that his case is to be reviewed after 12 years.
Boy A had been found guilty of sexual assault as well as the physical assault that caused Ana’s death.
Boy B, also 15, was sentenced to 15 years for the murder of Ana, although the judge ordered that his case be reviewed after eight years.
Mr Justice McDermott said both sentences had to be proportionate to the severity of the crime. He noted that neither boy was suffering from a mental illness, although in mitigation he took into account their young age and potential for rehabilitation.
