Boys, now 15, are youngest people in Irish history to be convicted of murder

Two teenage boys have been sentenced to life and 15 years respectively for murdering a schoolgirl who was lured to an abandoned house, savagely beaten and sexually assaulted in a case that has horrified Ireland.

A judge in the central criminal court in Dublin on Tuesday sentenced one boy to life in detention, with the sentence to be reviewed after 12 years. The other received 15 years, with the sentence to be reviewed after eight years.

They were 13 when they killed Ana Kriégel, 14, in a derelict house in the Dublin suburb of Lucan in May 2018. Because of their age they were not named and were referred to as Boy A and Boy B.

Now 15, they became the youngest people in Irish history to be convicted of murder when the jury returned unanimous verdicts in June after a harrowing seven-week trial that evoked comparisons to the 1993 James Bulger atrocity.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott deferred sentencing until this week to take into account probation and psychological reports.

He said the killers could gain freedom while they were still relatively young men. “When that will be is not yet determined but much is based on your behaviour and attitude during your detention.”

Addressing both boys, he said: “You will have to carry the guilt and shame of your involvement for the rest of your lives … at least you will have the opportunity to reconstruct yours in a positive way. Will you take it? You have the opportunity for a future and second chance, something you so wrongfully and cruelly denied to Ana.”

He said Ana’s life was of “supreme importance” and that she had lived it “with energy, fun, imagination, love, dancing and music”.

Prosecutors said Boy B called at Ana’s house and led her to a nearby derelict house where Boy A, whom she had a crush on, was waiting. He had assembled a “murder kit”: zombie mask, black gloves, shin guards, knee pads. His weapons were a long stick and a concrete block.

Boy A received an eight-year sentence for sexual assault, to run concurrently with the murder sentence.

During the trial, Boy A denied murder but the court heard he now appears to have accepted he killed Ana. He still denies sexual assault. Boy B admitted watching his friend attack Ana but still maintains his innocence in the murder.

The boys will remain in Oberstown, Ireland’s only child detention campus, until they turn 18, when they will be moved to an adult prison to serve the balance of their sentence.

The judge said there was little guidance relating to sentencing children for murder because “thankfully” there were so few cases. He had the power to impose a life term but that was not mandatory in the case of minors.

In a victim impact statement, Ana’s mother, Geraldine, eulogised her daughter, who was adopted from Russia as a toddler, and spoke of the anguish of losing her.

“She was wild and wonderful, electric, so full of fun, madness and laughter … she was the love of our lives.”

She said there was no way to describe the pain and nightmares that followed the murder. “We brought Ana to live in a ‘safe’ place, a quiet country village, a leafy suburb, where the only sounds in the morning are doves cooing. No one could suspect the evil that lay in waiting for her. No one could anticipate the darkness that swirled in the souls of those that murdered and violated her.”