Interviews of Boy B were ‘inappropriate’, defence claims in Kriégel murder appeal

• Published date: 23 June 2022

The submissions were made as part of an appeal by the teenager, publicly known as Boy B, against his conviction for the 14-year-old's murder in Lucan, Co Dublin on May 14th, 2018

The prosecution said it stands "100 per cent" over the interviews with Boy B, who was 13 at the time.

Boy B was convicted of Ana's murder in 2019 after the jury accepted the prosecution's case that he lured the girl to a derelict house where she was sexually assaulted and killed by another 13-year-old known as Boy A. He was jailed for 15 years with a review scheduled after eight years.

The boy's defence, led by James Dwyer SC, is attempting to introduce expert evidence on whether he was placed under undue pressure by gardaí during his five interviews.

Case law typically precludes defendants from introducing matters on appeal which were not mentioned at the original trial. At a hearing on Tuesday, Mr Dwyer told the three judge court that an exception should be made in this case on several grounds, including that the fresh expert evidence goes to the core of the prosecution case and that the evidence is of a very high quality.

Interviews

Counsel said the new evidence shows that "renowned" experts believe the interviews were conducted in an "entirely inappropriate manner". He agreed with Mr Justice George Birmingham that his application was "pretty remarkable" but said that it was a case where a murder prosecution was based entirely on the interviews of a 13-year-old boy.

One expert commissioned by the defence, forensic psychologist Prof Susan Young, watched Boy B's five interviews and wrote a report in December 2020 saying the interviewing was inadequate and inappropriate. Her report had several headings including the duration of the interviews, techniques used such as "manipulation and pressure", repetition, culminative impact and ineffectual advice.

Another forensic psychologist, Prof Gisli Gudjonsson, reviewed Prof Young's report. He concluded that the mind...