A 14-year-old accused of murdering schoolgirl Ana Kriegel claimed that before her disappearance she had stormed off after he told her he was not interested in her, a court has heard.
The teenager told gardaí that he did not want to hurt her feelings and was trying to "be considerate" when she allegedly asked him out.
Boy A, who is accused of murdering and sexually assaulting the 14-year-old in May last year, also claimed that some minutes after Ana left his company he was attacked by two men in a park.
The accused told gardaí one of the men grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him to the ground and repeatedly kicked him. He was able to escape after he got up and kicked one of them on the head, the Central Criminal Court in Dublin heard.
He was left with a limp and a bloody lip, he claimed.
Boy A has pleaded not guilty to the murder and sexual assault "involving serious violence" of the schoolgirl.
A second accused, identified only as Boy B, has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Neither boy can be identified because of their age.
The court heard previously that Ana's naked body was found in a derelict house in Lucan, Co Dublin, days after she went missing last May.
Sergeant Aonghus Hussey told the court that on the day after Ana disappeared, gardaí invited Boy A and Boy B to go to the park to show the route they said they had taken with Ana 24 hours previously.
Mr Hussey said gardaí wanted to establish their movements, but when they came to a certain point of the route Boy B seemed to be confused.
He said he saw Boy A give Boy B a look that he was "not happy with".
The officer said: "I felt that there was something wrong and I couldn't understand why they couldn't tell me their exact movement.
"We immediately split the two boys up."
Mr Hussey told the court he asked Boy A what the look was about but the youngster denied it.
Sergeant John Dunne stayed with Boy B and Mr Hussey went with Boy A and his father.
Mr Hussey told the court: "I asked his dad to stay a little bit behind us as [Boy A] may have been embarrassed about something and I was trying to establish if something occurred between him and Ana.
"We spoke more about Ana and he told me that Ana had asked him out and he declined her."
He said that Ana left and he walked on as he wanted to "get himself together".
It was shortly after this that the alleged attack on Boy A took place.
Gardaí raised concerns about the teenagers' accounts of the route they had taken as it seemed "to lack consistency", Mr Hussey said.
Both boys were taken to Leixlip Garda Station where they gave voluntary statements.
The court was told that inconsistencies were found in their statements and when Mr Hussey pointed these out to Boy B, he said his recollection was correct.
Boy B told gardaí he had "no clue" what happened to the 14-year-old 24 hours after she went missing.
He said he called to Ana's home at the request of Boy A as he wanted to sort out relationship issues with her.
He claimed he last saw Ana at around 5.40pm when he left the park and returned to his house to do homework.
In his statement to gardaí, Boy A said that on the day she disappeared he called over to Boy B's house but he was doing chores so had arranged to meet him in a local park.
A few minutes after Boy A got to the park, Boy B arrived with Ana.
He said he did not know her that well and he had never been to the park with her before.
Boy A claimed they were walking through the park when Ana told him she had something to ask him.
In Boy A's statement, which was read out in court, he said: "She said I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me. I was surprised. It came out of nowhere. I did have an idea she liked me because she did kind of ask me out at the start of school year.
"I thought about it for a few minutes because I was going to say no and wanted to do it without hurting her feelings."
He claimed that she had previously asked him out and when he rejected her she stormed off.
"I was trying to be considerate. I said I was sorry but I wasn't interested in her. She didn't answer. She said nothing. She stayed there for a few minutes and walked off. I could tell she wasn't happy.
"She looked annoyed and sad at the same time, then she walked off.
"When she stormed off, me and [Boy B] kept walking on. I said to him 'that was a bit random' and he said, 'yeah'.
"I said nothing to Ana to upset her except for declining her."
Boy A said that shortly after this, Boy B left the park to go home and as he continued to walk on he became aware of two men walking behind him.
"It didn't feel right so I sped up," he added.
"They also sped up and when they caught up with me one grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me to the ground and they started to kick me."
He claimed that he was winded by one of the kicks to his chest.
He said he managed to get up and kick one of his alleged attackers in the head and they ran off.
The jury was also shown CCTV images that gardaí said shows Ana's last known movements.
Images were captured from six separate locations showing various movements of persons gardaí say are Boy A, Boy B and Ana.
In one shot, Boy B can been seen walking in the direction of Ana's home, then a few minutes later Boy B is shown walking back with Ana, with Boy B walking in front of her.
Gardaí say Boy A can be seen walking through the park at 5.05pm wearing dark clothing, gloves and a backpack.
Other footage shows two people walking through another part of the park at 5.14pm.
Garda Seamus Timmins told the court that after gardaí extensively viewed the footage and movements of other people in the area, they believe these two people are Boy B and Ana.
Mr Timmins added that at 6.03pm, a person that appears to be Boy A can be seen walking back through the park with a limp.
The trial continues.
