RECORDS RELATING TO Boy A’s progress in custody will be “crucial” to his appeal against his life sentence for the murder of schoolgirl Ana Kriegel in Dublin seven years ago, a court has heard.

His lawyers told the Court of Appeal today that his case will require “document-heavy analysis” as they sought more time before a date for the hearing of his appeal is set.

The appellant, who was one of two boys convicted of the teenager’s murder, was in 2019 sentenced to life with a review after 12 years.

The defendant was also sentenced to 12 years for an aggravated sexual assault on Ana, which runs alongside the murder sentence.

Last November, Boy A’s lawyers successfully applied for more time to bring an appeal against his life sentence, following a landmark Supreme Court decision.

In a judgment delivered by Justice Iseult O’Malley in March 2025, the Supreme Court found that life sentences for a child convicted of murder should only be imposed in exceptional cases where the evidence showed the intentions and actions of the child were akin to those of an adult.

The ruling also said a sentencing court does not have jurisdiction to review terms of detention imposed on child offenders.

Boy A’s case came before the Court of Appeal today, where Justice Isobel Kennedy had been due to set a hearing date.

However when the matter was called on, Niall Nolan BL, representing the appellant, asked that the case instead be listed for mention towards the end of July.

Asked by Justice Kennedy why a date couldn’t be fixed at this juncture, Nolan said the legal team was seeking a significant number of records “in order to progress the appeal”.

He said records relating to his client’s progress in custody would be “crucial” to the determination of this case. While his solicitor has been very diligent in seeking reports, there had been a “limited response” in terms of hard data, Nolan added.

He said the trial judge, Justice Paul McDermott, had made “certain directions on the production of reports along the way”. The barrister said these reports were supposed to be prepared twice yearly.

“We need to determine whether they are there,” Nolan said, adding that enquiries were ongoing. The barrister said he also believed a probation report would have been prepared.

“We have been very active in trying to put together the records,” he said.

Nolan added that, unlike other cases, there was not a “pressing need to get this on for hearing”.

He asked the court for more time to allow the youth’s lawyers to assemble the appeal.

“It is going to be a document-heavy analysis,” the barrister said, before also making an application for a documentary junior counsel for the appeal.

Justice Kennedy granted the request, noting that a solicitor and two counsel have already been approved for the case.

She adjourned the matter to 10 July for mention, but said there was an expectation that a date for hearing will be fixed at that point.

The two boys, referred to in the media as Boy A and Boy B, were both 13 years old when they murdered Ana Kriegel in an abandoned house at Laraghcon, Clonee Road, Lucan on 14 May 2018.

They were convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury in June 2019 of murdering Ana, with Boy A also convicted of Ana’s aggravated sexual assault in a manner that involved serious violence.

The jury accepted the prosecution’s case that Boy B lured Ana to the house by telling her that Boy A wanted to meet her, knowing that Boy A intended to kill her.

He watched as Boy A, who was dressed all in black and wearing a ghoulish mask, shin guards and knee pads, sexually assaulted Ana having dragged her to the ground, where he beat her repeatedly with a piece of wood and a large block.