Ana Kriégel trial: Boy told gardaí 14-year-old was a ‘weirdo’, court told

A boy accused of the murder of 14-year-old Ana Kriégel told gardaí after his arrest that she was a “weirdo” who was not liked by other children.

The accused, Boy B, also told investigators a week after Ana’s body was found that he was no longer friends with his co-accused Boy A after “what happened.” He claimed Boy A lied to gardaí about the events preceding Ana’s disappearance.

The jury is currently watching video interviews conducted with Boy B on May 24th, 2018, a week after Ana's body was found in an abandoned farmhouse in Lucan, Co Dublin.

In his second interview with detectives on May 24th, 2018, Boy B said Ana was “kind of, like, outcasted.”

He said “a lot of people knew her but she wasn’t very popular. Sometimes I’d see her walking by herself.”

Ana was more mature, more “developed” and much taller than other children, he said

She was a “lonely, kind of sad person”, he claimed. “She doesn’t have a boyfriend, stuff like that.”

He said Ana was a “goth” who dressed all in black. He told gardaí she wore “kind of slutty” clothes. Asked what he meant by “slutty” he said, “it looked like she wanted people to look at her by the clothes she was wearing.”

He said Ana was “not liked…because she’s different, just weird. Anti social.”

Asked by gardaí why Ana was lonely, Boy B said she has been “through depression quite a bit”. He said the “popular kids and probably even the unpopular people” didn’t like Ana.

“She asked out a lot of people. Most of the people she asked out got really negative responses from the others,” he said.

“I thought of Ana like a weirdo. Somebody I thought I should not be around,” the boy said.

Asked about his friendship with Boy A, he said “he’s not really my friend anymore since what happened. That’s about it.”

‘Satanic symbol’

He said Boy A was “weird” and “not a rational thinker.” Boy A “lied” to gardaí about what happened on May 14th, he said. Later asked by gardaí if Boy A was a goth, Boy B replied “no, he was more strange.”

Boy B told the detectives he was asked by Boy A to call for Ana that day. He said he had been told by a garda that Boy A claimed he never asked him to do this.

In his third interview gardaí asked Boy B why Boy A asked him to call for Ana that day instead of calling for her himself.

Boy B responded: “My guess would be that he was too shy or that he didn’t want to be seen with her in public because, as I said, some people who got asked out by Ana in public got negative backlash.”

Also in his third interview, the boy said he had previously visited an abandoned house with Boy A where he saw a “satanic symbol”.

Boy B told detectives they went to the house with two other friends sometime in late 2017.

He said they went inside and explored the different rooms. “It was really thrashed. It was a disaster piece,” he said.

“We looked around for a little bit. We saw some weird spray paint. And so we decided to leave. And that was the last time I went in there.”

He said he was “pretty sure” he saw a “satanic symbol” in the house. Asked to elaborate, the boy said “a pentagram, a star associated with the Devil.”

It is the prosecution case that Boy B, lured Ana from her home at 5pm on May 14th, 2018 on the pretence of meeting Boy A, who Ana was “interested” in. Boy A then allegedly violently sexually assaulted and murdered her in the derelict farmhouse as Boy B watched.

Boy A has pleaded not guilty to the murder and sexual assault “involving serious violence” of Ana Kriégel on May 14th, 2018, at Glenwood House, Laraghcon, Clonee Road, Lucan in Dublin.

Boy B has pleaded not guilty to the murder of the girl on the same date.

The accused were 13 at the time of the alleged offence and are 14 now.

Earlier the jury was told the prosecution may not use the interviews given by Boy B as evidence against Boy A.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott told the jurors, as a matter of legal principle, the prosecution may not rely on evidence obtained from Boy B during interview as part of its case against Boy A. Such evidence can only be used by against Boy B, he said.

The trial continues on Wednesday before Mr Justice McDermott and a jury of eight men and four women.