A COURT HAS heard this morning from a number of juvenile witnesses who knew both the accused boys in the Ana Kriegel murder trial.

Two boys, known as Boy A and Boy B, have pleaded not guilty to the 14-year-old girl’s murder on 14 May 2018. Boy A has also been charged with aggravated sexual assault – a charge he also denies. Both boys were 13 years old at the time of the alleged offences.

It is being alleged by the prosecution that Boy A murdered Ana and sexually assaulted her. It is the prosecution’s case that Boy B assisted the murder and knew what was going to happen.

One friend, a friend of Boy B, said that the accused told him he believed Boy A was trying to set him up, the court heard today. 

The witness told gardaí that he had a conversation with Boy B in June of last year, a number of weeks after his initial arrest. He said the two were walking together when Boy B turned to him and told him he needed to tell him something and that he had to keep it to himself. 

According to the juvenile witness, Boy B said that he, Ana and Boy A were in the park on the day of Ana’s disappearance after Boy B called to her house. Boy B then told his friend that the three of them walked to the abandoned house when he saw Ana and Boy A get into a physical argument which he said “was getting more violent”. 

He said Boy B told him how Boy A got “her into a headlock and got her onto the ground and it was this point he said he ran away”.

Boy B and his friend spoke briefly about Ana and the case earlier in the day. Boy B told his friend that he believed Boy A was trying “to snake him, to set him up”.

The juvenile witness explained that Boy B said he believed his co-accused was setting him up as he made him call for Ana on the day of her disappearance. Boy B told the witness not to tell anyone about what he said. 

‘Mental dilemma’

According to Boy B’s senior counsel Damian Colgan, the witness said in his statement to gardaí that he was in a “mental dilemma” but that he spoke to his parents about what he had been told and that they organised to speak with gardaí the following day. 

The court also heard from a number of other juvenile witnesses today in relation to conversations they had with the accused in the immediate aftermath of Ana’s disappearance.

One witness said he discussed Ana’s disappearance with both the accused, who allegedly told him that they knew she was missing and that they were the last people to see her in the local park. 

Another juvenile witness said Boy A had told him he had been attacked by two men in the park on the day of Ana’s disappearance. He said Boy A didn’t seem himself and was “very agitated” and “very fidgety”. He said Boy B appeared fine and “calm and collected”. 

The trial continues with a jury of eight men and four women in front of Mr Justice Paul McDermott.