Woman faces jail over photos of Ana killers
Accused ‘ breached court order’
A WOMAN has been charged over the posting online of the identities and pictures of Ana Kriegel’s schoolboy killers.
Rebecca Ryan c ould be f acing 12 months in jail and a € 1,500 fine for al l egedly breaking a court order banning the identification of the pair.
They were both 13 when th ey murdered the schoolgirl in a derelict house.
Ryan, from Priory Lawn in Ballybeg, Co Waterford, w a s c h a r g e d w i t h breaching the Children’s Act 2001, which protects the anonymity of minors facing criminal charges.
Det Gda Niall Carolan, a member of a special team set up to investigate the a l l e g e d p u b l i c a t i o n s , handed i n e xhi bi t s at Waterford District Court yesterday.
He t ol d Judge Kevin St aunton more prosecutions will follow.
Th e c h a r g e s a r e s p e c i f i c a l l y related to the publication of the boy’s identities following a court ban by Mr Justice Paul Mcdermott during the trial in March last year.
Both Boy A and Boy B had denied murd e r i n g 1 4 - y e a r - o l d An a a t Glenwood House on Clonee Road,
Lucan, West Dublin, on May 14, 2018. They were found guilty after a trial.
Ryan, who did not appear in court yesterday due to Covid- 19 restrictions, i s al l eged t o have publi shed t he cropped images of the boys with their heads circled in red on Twitter on a date on or about June 19 last year.
Det Gda Carolan told the court the 25- year - old’s post al l egedly made derogatory references to both.
The ac cused’s s ol i ci t or Hi l ar y Del ahunty t o l d Ju d ge Staunton there were a number of posts made by several people that were b e i ng i nve st i gat e d by gardai and 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 one on Facebook and not have i nvolved “any huge amount of ef f ort” and “could have easily been done” by pressing on a button on a phone.
Ju dge St aunton s ai d t h e c ase “couldn’t have been more serious” and that “if you stop anyone on the street, they would know what it referred to”.
It referred to something involving juveniles where there was a “specific direction” from the trial judge. The case was adjourned until December 10.
The case could not have been more serious
JUDGE KEVIN STAUNTON YESTERDAY