Life

Lynette Fay: The horrific murder of Ana Kriégel has rocked Ireland to its core

I spent a lot of time this week thinking back to when I was a 13/14 year old. May/June would have been spent finishing up exams, looking for a summer job to save up for the annual Gaeltacht trip later in the summer.

Lynette Fay

Lynette Fay

Lynette is an award winning presenter and producer, working in television and radio. Hailing from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, she is a weekly columnist with The Irish News.

Fourteen-year-old Ana Kriégel was murdered in Lucan, Co Dublin on May 14 2018
Fourteen-year-old Ana Kriégel was murdered in Lucan, Co Dublin on May 14 2018 Fourteen-year-old Ana Kriégel was murdered in Lucan, Co Dublin on May 14 2018

I WOULD have been outgoing but painfully shy and insecure under it all. Trying to fit in, craving validation, working out who we are, beginning to understand sexuality and attraction to another person. It’s all part of being a teenager, isn’t it?

Anastasia 'Ana' Kriégel was all these things. She was also Russian, she was unusually tall for her age, she was a very pretty girl and she stood out. She was different and just wanted to fit in.

I spent Tuesday morning this week reading the horrific details of how Ana was lured to her death in an abandoned house in Lucan, Co Dublin in May of last year.

A 13-year-old boy now known as ‘Boy B’ called to her house at 5pm on May 14. Ana’s daddy reluctantly gave her permission to go outside with him. Patric Kriégel thought that his daughter should be doing homework. Ana assured her father that she wouldn’t be long.

Ana’s mother, Geraldine, arrived home at 5.20pm and had a bad feeling about the fact that someone had called for her daughter. Apparently, no one ever 'called for Ana'.

The ensuing Garda investigation established Ana's time of death between 5.30pm and 5.40pm that same afternoon. In a 40 minute window, the beloved daughter of Patric and Geraldine was gone. She had been brutally assaulted and murdered.

On Tuesday evening last, the Central Criminal Court in Dublin found two 14-year-old boys, known as Boy A and Boy B, guilty of her murder. They were 13 at the time of the offence.

Read more:

  •  A murder that shocked a nation
  • Murdered schoolgirl Ana Kriegel was talented teenager who loved to sing and dance

Like anyone else who heard any detail of this case, the age of those involved has shaken me: 13 years of age.

We look at the children around us, our sons, our daughters and think ‘what if’. It is a natural, human reaction. Imagine what Patric and Geraldine Kriégel have been going through since that fateful night last May. It’s unthinkable.

Pre-teen and early teenage years are challenging and confusing. These years are the beginning of adulthood. Becoming an adult in some cases can go on for decades. There are so many questions to answer, so many dilemmas. Do we sufficiently address these bodily and hormonal changes in an open and non-judgemental way?

There will never be a positive outcome from this case, but perhaps parents, children and the wider family circle might, starting now, speak more openly to each other about sex, about consent. Have the conversation.

The murder of Ana Kriégel has also raised the issue of attacks on females and access to online pornography. Is enough being done to supervise the mobile phone use and internet access of teenagers? Are we all complicit in wanting an easy life, so we let them at it rather than put up with the tantrums that often follow a wifi/internet ban?

Bullying also is at the heart of this case. Ana was different. Why in 2019 is anyone who doesn’t conform to what is deemed ‘normal’ by wider society still allowed to be victimised? Very few of us can say that they have never judged another because their interests, looks, behaviour was outside ‘the norm’ – whatever that is.

Will we ever get to the point where, collectively, we celebrate differences instead of torturing, taunting or mocking someone because of their circumstances, history or the way they choose to lead their life?

This attitude is a cancer in wider society, especially here in the north where we just can’t seem to live and let live.

I worry that children are in a hurry to grow up. At 13 and 14 we all thought we knew it all – I certainly did, but I was lucky to have parents and teachers who kindly advised me that the opposite was true. Of course, I wasn’t grateful for their counsel at the time, but I am now.

The horrific torture and senseless murder of beautiful Ana Kriégel has rocked Ireland to its core. She was a beautiful young woman who loved to dance.

Read more:

  •  A murder that shocked a nation
  • Murdered schoolgirl Ana Kriegel was talented teenager who loved to sing and dance