Sentencing for boys convicted of Kriégel murder to take place next week

A sentencing hearing for the two boys convicted of the murder of 14-year-old Ana Kriégel will take place next week, the Central Criminal Court heard today.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott was today given psychological and psychiatric reports relating to the two boys.

Prosecution barrister Brendan Grehan SC told Mr Justice McDermott that the hearing next Tuesday will include a summary of the evidence by a garda detective inspector and a statement by Ana’s parents and is likely to take a full day.

The two boys, referred to in the media as Boy A and Boy B, were 13 years old when they murdered Ana Kriégel in an abandoned house at Laraghcon, Clonee Road, Lucan, on 14 May, 2018.

The boys, now aged 15, were convicted by unanimous jury verdicts earlier this year.

Boy A was also convicted of Ana’s aggravated sexual assault in a manner that involved serious violence to her.

Only five journalists will be allowed into court on Tuesday for the sentencing hearing after Mr Justice McDermott rejected an application by the media to lift or to change an order he made in July.

Senior Counsel, Luán Ó Braonáin, representing RTÉ, Independent News and Media, the Irish Times and News Ireland, the publishers of the Times and the Sunday Times asked the court to outline the basis for the order.

He said it was a departure from the ordinary, and the media were entitled to be informed of the basis under which it was imposed.

He said viewing the proceedings on a screen was not the same as being in attendance in court.

Mr Justice McDermott said that during the course of the trial and following the conviction it was clear to him from his own observations and what happened in the trial that the proceedings were taking a considerable toll on the Kriégel family, the accused boys’ families and the physical and mental well being of the two boys.

He said he had requested that no more than five members of the media be in court to maximise the least possible interference with the boys’ right to dignity, health and bodily integrity.

The judge said he was also very conscious that the children were likely to require immediate support when the sentencing decisions were made, in circumstances that may involve enormous emotion.

He said the court was obliged to afford a certain degree of decency and respect to them in acknowledgment of the family bond and the rights of the family.

He said he would have thought many of the reasons for his order were obvious to any adult looking in, but that did not appear to be the case.

Mr Justice McDermott said he was not in any way restricting publicity in relation to the hearing as other members of the press would be able to see and hear what was happening on a screen provided in an adjacent court. And he considered the measures he was adopting to be minimal.

He awarded the costs of the application to the parties in the case, against the media organisations.