A Central Criminal Court judge has accepted he cannot review the sentence he imposed on one of the two men who murdered schoolgirl Ana Kriégel when they were just 13 years old.
The case of “Boy B” (now aged 21), who cannot be named due to protections for underage offenders under the Children Act, was due to be reviewed on Monday by Mr Justice Paul McDermott as part of the stipulations of his 15 years’ detention imposed in 2019.
However, last year the Supreme Court’s Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley ruled a sentencing court does not have jurisdiction to review terms of detention imposed on child offenders.
Brendan Grehan SC, for the State, told Mr Justice McDermott the 15-year sentence imposed on Boy B stands and the Central Criminal Court has no further role to play, given the Supreme Court’s ruling.
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James Dwyer SC, for Boy B, agreed with Mr Grehan.
Mr Justice McDermott said he had “no further function in the matter” and said he would make no order in relation to Boy B’s sentence.
He suggested the 21-year-old should receive legal advice relating to a further judgment by Ms Justice O’Malley, which sets out guidelines for sentencing juvenile murderers.
In the decision, the Supreme Court also held that life sentences for a child convicted of murder should be imposed only in exceptional cases where the evidence showed the intentions and actions of the child could be equated with those of an adult.
Boy B previously lodged an appeal against his conviction but withdrew it on the morning of his hearing in October 2022.
Boy A and Boy B were convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury in June 2019 of murdering Ana Kriégel at a derelict house in St Catherine’s Park in Lucan in May 2018. Boy A was also convicted of aggravated sexual assault of Ana Kriégel in a manner that involved serious violence.
The evidence showed Boy B lured the girl from her home under the guise of a “romantic encounter” with Boy A. Boy B took Ana Kriégel to what Mr Grehan described as a “dirty, dark, derelict house” where he knew preparations were in place for their arrival.
Boy B had provided builder’s tape that was used during the strangulation of Ana Kriégel and “voyeuristically watched as Boy A beat and sexually assaulted Ana Kriegel and took part in an extensive cover-up afterwards”. He then lied repeatedly to gardaí and others and “did it all in circumstances where he admitted Boy A had expressed an intention of killing Ana Kriégel a number of weeks previously”.
“When approached by gardaí after Ana was reported missing, Boy B initially denied any knowledge of what happened to her and over the following weeks during multiple interviews gave different accounts of what he had done and seen. In his final interview, having been arrested for a second time, he admitted to seeing Boy A assault Ana and remove some of her clothing but denied he played any part in her murder.”
His lawyers argued at his trial that he was an innocent bystander.
Boy A was sentenced to life imprisonment with a review after 12 years and eight years’ imprisonment for aggravated sexual assault.
Boy A will appeal his sentence in light of Ms Justice O’Malley’s ruling.
