The two boys who murdered Ana Kriegel will be sentenced today.
One of them is also due to be sentenced for a violent sexual assault on the 14-year-old at a derelict farmhouse in Dublin last year.
At last week’s sentence hearing, the court heard BOY A accepts he caused Ana’s death, but still maintains his innocence in relation to the aggravated sexual assault charge, to which he was also found guilty of.
The prosecution’s case against BOY B was that he lured the schoolgirl from her home in Leixlip to the abandoned farmhouse in Lucan, knowing what was in store for her. He was also convicted of murder, but doesn’t accept the verdict.
The boys are now 14 and 15, so the mandatory life sentence for murder doesn’t apply.
The Children Act is based on the philosophy that child offenders should only be detained as a “last resort”.
Partly or fully suspending a sentence is also not an option when it comes to periods of detention for children, but the judge can order for a review to be carried out on whatever sentence he hands down today, if he sees fit.
Regardless of what happens today, the boys’ identities will continue to be protected and can never be revealed.
