A CENTRAL CRIMINAL Court judge has granted leave to issue a contempt of court motion after a journalist allegedly named one of the boys convicted of Ana Kriegel’s murder twice on a Cork radio show.

Brendan Grehan SC on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions yesterday told Justice Michael White that a contempt of court matter had arisen relating to the recent trial of the two boys identified in media reports only as Boy A and Boy B.

The 14-year-olds were convicted earlier this month of murdering 14-year-old Ana at an abandoned farmhouse at Laraghcon, Clonee Road, Lucan on 14 May last year.

Boy A was further convicted of Ana’s aggravated sexual assault in a manner that involved serious violence to her.

The boys were found guilty by unanimous jury verdicts following an eight-week trial. It is an offence to publish their identities under the Children Act and due to an order made by the trial judge Justice Paul McDermott.

Grehan said that journalist Niall O’Connor named one of the boys twice during an interview on the Neil Prendeville show on Cork radio station Red FM on the morning of 19 June, the day after the jury’s verdicts.

Handing a redacted transcript into the court, Grehan said the issue arose towards the end of the interview when the journalist identified by name one of the boys twice before he was “cut off mid-stream”.

Counsel said the DPP had made contact with O’Connor and the radio station and both parties are cooperating. 

Justice White granted leave to issue the motion which will be raised before Justice McDermott on Monday.