Boy accused of killing Ana to apply for bail
A BOY accused of murdering schoolgirl Ana Kriegel is to apply for bail, a judge has been told.
The 13-year-old faced his third hearing at the Dublin Children’s Court yesterday having been charged and remanded in custody on May 25 last.
The boy, who cannot be named because he is under 18, was charged with the murder of 14-year-old Anastasia at Glenwood House, Laraghcon, Clonee Road, Lucan on May 14.
Her body was found at the disused farmhouse three days later.
His bail application for bail will go before the High Court tomorrow. His defence solicitor told the court the boy is to be psychologically assessed ahead of that hearing. The boy’s parents and grandfather sat close to him during the proceedings and hugged him at the end of the hearing.
The teenager, who was wearing jeans, a jumper and runners, spoke briefly at the end of the hearing. Speaking quietly, he said ‘all right’ when the judge asked him how he was.
Judge O’Connor also asked him how was school in the detention centre and the boy told him it ‘finished last week’.
A State solicitor told Judge John O’Connor yesterday that the case was listed for directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions. The court heard the DPP’s office expected to receive the Garda investigation file next week.
The prosecution lawyer said: ‘I can tell the court significant progress has been made, the matter has been given urgent attention by our office and gardaí.
‘Due to the nature of the charge and amount of evidence, the full file has not been submitted yet.’
Garda Inspector Mark O’Neill told the judge: ‘This is a case where we appreciate the necessity to expedite matters. There has been a team of over 20 gardaí assigned to this case since the incident.’
He said there had been 425 lines of inquiry with 95 of them still ongoing, 230 statements taken, 255 exhibits seized and 675 hours of CCTV footage to view.
Inspector O’Neill said the scene was examined by a team of scientists from the Garda technical bureau. He said telephone analysts from the cyber crime unit were involved in the investigation.
‘As you would appreciate it is quite an extensive investigation and we are working very hard to make sure matters are expedited,’ he told the court.
Defence solicitor Donough Molloy said an application for bail would go before the High Court tomorrow. Due to the nature of the charge the Children’s Court does not have the jurisdiction to rule on the issue of bail in this case.
There was consent to the boy being further remanded in custody to appear again at the Children’s Court on July 23 next.
Mr Molloy said a psychological assessment of the boy was to be carried out in the Oberstown detention centre in advance of tomorrow’s hearing. It would suffice for the purpose of a bail application, he said.
The court has issued a warning that if boy’s name, school, address or a picture of him was reproduced on social media it will result in a prosecution.