Boy A admits at sentence hearing to causing Ana Kriegel's death, denies sexual assault

Additional reporting by digital desk

One of the boys convicted of murdering Ana Kriegel has admitted choking her and hitting her with a stick and a concrete block but continues to deny sexually assaulting her.

At a sentence hearing this morning, Detective Inspector Mark O'Neill told Brendan Grehan SC for the Director of Public Prosecutions that since his conviction Boy A, who during his trial denied assaulting Ana, has been the subject of reports by psychiatrists and pyschologists.

As a result of those Det. Insp. O'Neill said Boy A has accepted that he caused Ana's death. The witness agreed with Mr Grehan that Boy A, "described various actions including headlock, choke hold, kicking, hitting her with a stick and ultimately a block which he either threw at her or hit off her head on three occasions."

But the inspector said that Boy A maintains that he did not sexually assault Ana and "puts forward an alternative explanation" for the forensics found at the scene.

During the trial it emerged that Boy A's semen was found on Ana's top and there was evidence that she had been sexually assaulted.

Inspector O'Neill also told the hearing that gardaí found evidence that the boys planned Ana's murder.

Ana’s mother Geraldine has told the Central Criminal Court that life without her is a "misery" she and her family must endure for the rest of their lives.

She delivered a Victim Impact Statement on behalf of her family, saying "life without Ana is no longer a life, not even an existence".

She read out a paragraph Ana had written on hopes for her future when she started secondary school. She said she hoped to go to Paris University like her father, and maybe get a dog afterwards and get married too.

“I have a good life,” she wrote, “and I hope everyone I meet will be nice”.

The sentence hearing is continuing this afternoon at the Central Criminal Court in front of Justice Paul McDermott.

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

Now aged 15, they 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.