A boy accused of murdering and sexually assaulting 14-year-old schoolgirl Ana Kriégel wanted to avoid “hurting her feelings” after she asked him out, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
The boy, Boy A, told gardaí that he knew she liked him. He said they had met the day before in a local park, shortly before Ana went missing and she had asked him out.
In a Garda statement taken the day after Ana went missing, Boy A said this took him by surprise but that he knew she liked him because she had “kind of” asked him out once before.
On that occasion he declined and she became upset and stormed off, he said. This time he wanted to say no “without hurting her feelings”.
He said he took a few minutes to think about it before telling her “I said I’m sorry but I’m not interested”.
Ana didn’t answer. She said nothing and walked off, he said, looking “annoyed and sad at the same time”.
Boy A then said to his friend and co-accused, Boy B, “that was a bit random,” he told gardaí.
He said he then parted company from Boy B and was walking home when two young men attacked him. “One of them grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me to the ground.”
He said they started kicking him; one with heavy kicks and the other with light kicks. One of the kicks winded the boy. He said he then got up and kicked one of the men “in the head” and they ran off.
They did not try to rob him, he said.
The boy said he suffered various injuries to his lip, leg, back and arm and he had to limp home.
It is the prosecution case that Boy B lured Ana from her home that day on the pretence of meeting his best friend, Boy A, who Ana was “interested” in. Boy A then allegedly violently sexually assaulted and murdered her in a derelict farmhouse as Boy B watched.
Boy A has pleaded not guilty to the murder and sexual assault “involving serious violence” of Ms Kriégel on May 14th, 2018, at Glenwood House, Laraghcon, Clonee Road, Lucan in Dublin.
Boy B has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Kriégel on the same date.
The accused, who are both aged 14 but were 13 at the time of the alleged murder, cannot be identified due to their age.
The trial has also seen CCTV footage of what gardaí say are some of the last moments Ana was seen alive. Garda Seamus Timmons showed the jury a compilation of footage taken from various public and private CCTV cameras in the area.
He said some of the footage shows Boy B walking towards and away from the park. Other footage shows Boy A both on his own and in the company of Ana, Gda Timmins said. Both boys are wearing backpacks in the footage.
The last portion of CCTV shows a person at 6.03pm walking in the direction of Leixlip while limping. Gda Timmins said this appears to be Boy A.
He said gardaí conducted a large canvass of potential CCTV footage. They tracked down footage from public cameras and cameras on people’s houses as well as footage from buses which were passing through the area. They also appealed to motorists for dashcam footage.
He said “at a conservative estimate” gardaí watched between 600 and 700 hours of footage.
Earlier, Sgt Aonghus Hussey told the court he was in the park with Boy A, his co-accused Boy B and Boy A’s father on the day after Ana went missing.
Gardaí wanted the boys to show them the route they walked with Ana.
Sgt Hussey said as they walked, one of the other gardaí present said to Boy B that this route differed to one he had shown them earlier. Boy B appeared confused and unsure but continued on the route, Sgt Hussey told prosecution counsel Brendan Grehan SC.
Boy B walked on a short distance before stopping and saying this is as far as he had gone with Ana. He said he let Ana and Boy A walk on to give them some privacy.
Sgt Hussey said he saw Boy A give Boy B “a look”. The garda said he was unhappy with this interaction and immediately felt something was wrong. He said he did not understand why the Boy A could not tell him his exact movements.
He asked Boy A to walk on with him so he could point out where he had gone with Ana. The garda also asked Boy’s A father to walk a bit behind them in case the teenager was embarrassed to say something about Ana in front of him.
Boy A told Sgt Hussey that as they walked the previous day, Ana had “asked him out” but he told her he wasn’t interested. She looked upset and turned and walked back in the direction they came, the boy told Sgt Hussey.
The boy said he walked on a bit “to clear his head”. He pointed to a spot about 20 yards up the path and where he said he had been attacked by two men.
“He told me two men attacked him, assaulted him and then they ran across the fields in a northerly direction,” Sgt Hussey said.
Sgt Hussey said he told the boy they would deal with that matter later. “I was only concerned about Ana’s safety at that point.” By that stage Ana had been missing for 24 hours, having been last seen at about 5.30pm the day before.
The court heard gardaí were unhappy with the inconsistencies in the routes Boy B had shown them. As a result both boys were taken to Leixlip Garda station with their parents to give statements.
In his Garda statement, Boy B told gardaí he had “no clue” what happened to Ana after he left the park. He said he called to her house at 5pm on behalf of his friend Boy A who “wanted to sort out some relationship issues with her”.
Ana was “very chatty” on the way to the park, he said. She asked Boy B why Boy A wanted to see her. He responded that he would tell her when they got to the park. They met Boy A in the park and they started walking. Boy B walked behind Ana and Boy A to give them privacy, he said.
“I know that [Boy A] wanted to be clear with her that she was not of interest to him,” he said.
Boy B said he went off and got a drink from a nearby water fountain. He then saw Ana walking back the way they had come.
He said hello to her “but she didn’t really say anything. She looked really upset, really down. She had her head down”. This was at 5.30pm or 5.40pm, he said.
Boy B then left the park and went home to do his homework, he said. He told gardaí he didn’t know something was wrong until gardaí called to his house that night.
“I have no clue what happened to her,” he said.
The trial continues before a jury of eight women and four men.
