Boy B ‘not capable’ of killing Ana Kriégel, father tells court

The prosecution in the trial of two boys accused of the murder of 14-year-old Ana Kriégel has concluded its case following five weeks of evidence.

The jury has been told the defence for the first accused, Boy A, will not be calling evidence.

Counsel for the second accused, Boy B, said an issue needs to be resolved in the absence of the jury before the trial can proceed. Mr Justice Paul McDermott sent the jurors away until Thursday morning and reminded them they have heard only one side of the case so far.

On Tuesday morning, the court heard from one of the final witnesses in the case, the father of Boy B. He told the trial his son was “not capable” of killing the 14-year-old girl.

The father also told the court his son did not have much trust in him and this was why the boy did not tell him about the extent of his involvement in the events leading up to Ana’s alleged murder.

The prosecution allege 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.

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.

Boy B’s father told prosecuting counsel Brendan Grehan SC he asked his son if he knew anything about the disappearance of Ana after she went missing on May 14th, 2018.

His son did not say much except that he had to do his homework, he said. “It was very difficult for all of us to understand this tragedy, that somebody could do these awful things to that poor girl,” the witness said.

He said he could not believe his son had anything to do with it but because the boy was one of the last people seen with Ana, he tried to get him to jog his memory about what happened.

Angry

“He wasn’t happy, he wasn’t chatty. I knew he was trying to say something but he didn’t want to say anything to me.”

He said: “As his father I know he is not capable of anything like that.”

The father said he repeatedly asked Boy B about what happened but “he was not open to me”.

After Boy B’s garda interviews, during which he said he saw Boy A attack Ana in the abandoned house, his father asked him why he did not tell the full story from the beginning.

He said the boy told him he did not respect him and did not want to share the truth with him. The witness said he was angry with his son. He said the more angry he got, the less his son wanted to tell him the truth.

“I asked him why he told lies to the guards. He said he was panicking. That he didn’t know what was going on. He didn’t share the truth with me because he didn’t have much trust with me at that stage. Or with his mum.”

The father said his son also told him he was afraid of Boy A because he was strong and knew how to fight.

The father said the weekend before Ana went missing, his son told him he had allowed Boy A to borrow some expensive tape from their tool shed for a project he was working on. The court previously heard tape of the same brand was found around the neck of Ana’s body.

The father said he was “furious” when he learned his son had given the tape to Boy A. He said when gardaí searched their house after Boy B’s arrest they found tape of the same brand in the shed.

Gardaí were very interested in this and kept asking him questions about it, he said.

Pokemon

Asked to describe his son, the father said he did not like sports. Instead he liked “childish things” like cartoons and Pokemon, he said.

He said he “tried to get him to grow as a man” but the boy didn’t like to do anything with “fights or with sports”.

Garda Joan Sheridan gave evidence she examined electronic items taken from the home of Boy A including an iPad and an iPhone.

The iPad contained an image of a person wearing a mask and what appeared to be a school tie. She agreed with counsel that an image taken from the phone showed a person wearing a mask “with a lot of red around the mouth and sharp, pointed teeth replications”.

She also found a photo on Ana’s phone of her tied to a chair with sellotape in a living room. Her eyes were covered with a bandanna or bandage and a black scarf covered the rest of her face. This was created on May 6th, 2018.

The garda said she also found a video of Ana walking through an abandoned house. The house was on Kellystown Lane near the Intel plant and was created on February 14th, 2018. Garda Sheridan agreed with counsel that it seemed to be a “documentary”-style video.

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