Boy told gardaí he saw co-accused ‘raping’ Ana Kriégel

Boy B said 14-year-old girl was ‘crying, begging,’ asking Boy A to ‘stop, not to hurt her’

The body of Ana Kriégel (14) was found in a front room of a farmhouse in Lucan, Co Dublin on May 17th, 2018
The body of Ana Kriégel (14) was found in a front room of a farmhouse in Lucan, Co Dublin on May 17th, 2018

One of the boys accused of the murder of Ana Kriégel told gardaí he saw his co-accused “raping” the 14-year-old girl in an abandoned farmhouse in Lucan, Co Dublin.

The jury in the trial of the two 14-year-old boys is watching video of Boy B’s seventh interview which was conducted on July 7th, 2018, shortly after he was rearrested on suspicion of Ana’s murder.

Boy B had told gardaí in a previous interview that he went to an abandoned house with Ana and Boy A where he saw Boy A “flip” Ana before choking her and taking off some of her clothes.

It is the prosecution case that Boy B lured Ana from her home at 5pm on May 14th, 2018 on the pretence of meeting Boy A, who Ana was “interested” in. Boy A then allegedly violently sexually assaulted and murdered her in the derelict farmhouse as Boy B watched.

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In interview seven, Detective Garda Donal Daly told Boy B to describe his movements in as much detail as possible.

Boy B described which rooms he entered in the house. He said he “peeked” into the room where Ana’s body was later found.

Asked how Boy A looked once they were in the house, Boy B said, “he had a blank look on his face, that’s it.”

Boy B said at one point after they entered the house Boy A turned to him and asked him to leave.

Det Gda Daly asked him why he didn’t leave at that point. “Because when (Boy A) asked me to leave, I kind of got suspicious of him. If he asked me to leave that meant something was going to happen in terms of him and Ana.”

He said he thought they were going to kiss or that one was going to ask the other out.

Boy B said he went elsewhere in the house while Ana and Boy A went to a location marked by gardaí as Room One. He said he heard shuffling and went to see what it was.

He said he saw Boy A with his arm around Ana. Then he saw them “struggling”. He said Boy A got on top of Ana and stated choking her before taking off her jumper, T-shirt and trousers.

He couldn’t see Boy A’s face at this point because he had his hood up. Boy B said at this point Ana was “crying, begging, asking him to stop, not to hurt her”.

He said Boy A choked Ana with one hand. He demonstrated the action to gardaí.

At one point Boy A looked at him standing in the doorway, Boy B said. “Just when he’s about to take to take off her bra he looks at me and I realise I have to run,” Boy B told Det Gda Daly.

He said: “I realised that (Boy A) was raping her and that I had to run.” Asked to describe what Boy A looked like at this point, he said he had a blank face and showed “no emotions”.

Boy B denied taking off any of Ana’s clothes himself. He said the only time he touched her was when he helped her get over a ditch on the way to the house.

Boy A has pleaded not guilty to the murder and sexual assault “involving serious violence” of Ana Kriégel on May 14th, 2018, at Glenwood House, Laraghcon, Clonee Road, Lucan in Dublin.

Boy B has pleaded not guilty to the murder of the girl on the same date.

The accused were 13 at the time of the alleged offence and are 14 now.

The trial continues on Tuesday before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of eight men and four women.

Conor Gallagher

Conor Gallagher

Conor Gallagher is Crime and Security Correspondent of The Irish Times