Woman may be jailed for identifying Ana’s killers
A WOMAN could be facing 18 months in jail and a €1,500 fine for disobeying a court order banning the i dentification of Ana Kriégel’s murderers.
Rebecca Ryan, 25, a former water charges protester from Waterford city, has been charged with breaching Section 252 of the Children’s Act 2001, which provides for the anonymity of minors facing criminal charges.
It is also an offence to publish their addresses, schools or any i nformation l eading to their identification.
Detective Garda Niall Carolyn, a member of a special team set up to investigate the unlawful publications, handed in exhibits at Waterford District Court yesterday.
While this was the first such prosecution to come before a court on the issue, Det Gda Carolyn told Judge Kevin Staunton more prosecutions will follow.
The charges are specifically related to the publication of the boys’ identities, following a court ban by Judge Paul McDermott during the trial in March 2019.
Boy A had pleaded not guilty to the murder and a violent sexual assault of Ana at Glenwood House on the Clonee Road in Lucan, Co. Dublin, on May 14, 2018. Boy B pleaded not guilty to her murder on the same date.
Both were found guilty of the charges they faced.
The accused, who were both 13 at the time of the murder, cannot be identified due to their age.
Ms Ryan, of Priory Law, Ballybeg in Waterford city, did not appear in court because of Covid19 restrictions. Ms Ryan, a campaigner against water charges in the city some years ago, is alleged to have published the cropped images of the boys with their heads circled in red on a Twitter account on a date in or about June 19 of last year.
Det Gda Carolyn, based at Harcourt Street in Dublin, said the images allegedly made derogatory references to both in the post, the court heard.
The accused’s solicitor, Hilary Delahunty, told Judge Staunton there were a number of posts made by several people that were being investigated by gardaí and that hers could have been republished from another platform ‘in the heat of the moment’.
If any post did appear, it would have come from a similar post on Facebook and not involve ‘any huge amount of effort’ and ‘could have easily been done’ by pressing on a button on a phone, the court heard.
Judge Staunton said the case in question ‘couldn’t have been more serious’ and that ‘if you stop anyone on the street, they would know what it referred to’.
Ana was sexually assaulted and murdered at a derelict house in May 2018. She was 14 years old at the time of the killing.
Boys A and B were convicted of her murder in June 2019 following a trial that detailed her horrific last moments and the plot the pair hatched to kill her
Boy A was also found guilty of an aggravated sexual assault and received a life term, while Boy B was jailed for 15 years and is appealing his conviction.
A maximum fine of €1,500 and/ or a prison sentence of up to 12 months applies in Ms Ryan’s case upon summary conviction.
The matter was adjourned to December 10 next.