A 13-year-old boy accused of the murder of schoolgirl Ana Kriegel is to bring a bail application before the High Court on Wednesday, a judge has been told.
The teenager faced his third hearing at the Dublin Children’s Court on Monday having been charged and remanded in custody on May 25th last.
The boy, who cannot be named because he is under 18, was charged with the murder of Anastasia Kriegel (14) at Glenwood House, Laraghcon, Clonee Road, Lucan on May 14th, contrary to common law. Her body was found at the disused farmhouse three days later.
A State solicitor told Judge John O’Connor on Monday that the case was listed for directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The court heard the DPP’s office expected to receive the Garda investigation file next week.
The prosecution lawyer said: “I can tell the court significant progress has been made; the matter has been given urgent attention by our office and gardaí.
“Due to the nature of the charge and amount of evidence, the full file has not been submitted yet,” she added.
Garda Inspector Mark O’Neill told the judge: “This is a case where we appreciate the necessity to expedite matters. There has been a team of over 20 gardaí assigned to this case since the incident.”
He said there had been 425 lines of inquiry with 95 of them still ongoing, 230 statements taken, 255 exhibits seized and 675 hours of CCTV footage to view.
Inspector O’Neill said the scene was examined by a team of scientists from the Garda technical bureau and telephone analysts from the cyber crime unit were involved in the investigation.
“As you would appreciate, it is quite an extensive investigation and we are working very hard to make sure matters are expedited,” he told the court.
Bail application
Defence solicitor Donough Molloy said an application for bail would go before the High Court on Wednesday.
Due to the nature of the charge, the Children’s Court does not have the jurisdiction to rule on the issue of bail in this case. There was consent to the boy being further remanded in custody to appear again at the Children’s Court on July 23rd.
Mr Molloy said a psychological assessment of the boy was to be carried out in the Oberstown detention centre in advance of Wednesday. It would suffice for the purpose of a bail application, he said.
The teenager, who was wearing jeans, a jumper and runners, spoke briefly at the end of the hearing. Speaking quietly, he said “alright” when the judge asked him how he was. Judge O’Connor also asked him how was school in the detention centre and the boy told him it “finished last week”.
His parents and grandfather sat close to him during the proceedings and hugged him at the end of the hearing.
The court has issued a warning that if boy’s name, school or address or a picture of him was reproduced on social media it would result in a prosecution.
At his first hearing on May 25th, Garda Inspector O’Neill told the court: “In reply to that charge after caution, he had nothing to say.” Legal aid had been granted after the court was told the the teenager’s age and that he was a schoolchild.