The family of 14-year-old Ana Kriégel, who was murdered in Dublin last year, have said they are “broken”.

Her mother, Geraldine Kriégel, read out a victim impact statement at a sentence hearing on Tuesday for the two teenage boys convicted of murdering Ana.

She told the court the happiest day of her and her husband’s lives was when they were allowed to adopt her.

The sentence hearing has been adjourned until Tuesday 5 November at 10:30 local time.

Both boys have been remanded in custody until then.

Ana’s naked remains were found at a disused house in the Lucan area in May 2018.

The two teenagers, both 13 at the time of the murder and known as Boy A and Boy B, cannot be identified because of their ages.

Both were convicted by unanimous jury verdicts earlier this year.

Senior investigating officer Det Insp Mark O’Neill told the hearing at the Central Criminal Court psychiatric reports suggested Boy A accepts he killed Ana but did not sexually assault her.

‘The evil that was waiting for her’

Boy B, he said, does not accept he played a role in the murder.

Boy B changed his story several times in the course of his police interviews.

Mrs Kriégel said: “We can’t tell you how badly it hurts” that she is no longer alive.

“No one could suspect the evil that was waiting for her,” she added.

She described Ana as “wild, wonderful and electric”.

‘Have pleasant dreams and I love you’

Every night she said in French to her adoptive parents, Geraldine and French-born Patric, after kissing them good night, “sleep tight, have pleasant dreams and I love you”.

She said Ana had written to her birth parents and had wanted to meet them but that will now never happen.

She said Ana had hoped to go to a French university, like her father, get a dog, get married and have children.

She added that her dream was to open a hotel called the Ana Love hotel.

The grandfather of Boy A said his family offered “sincerest regret and remorse” to the Kriégel family.

He described Mrs Kriégel’s statement as eloquent and passionate.

He said Boy A “was and is a loving, caring and kind child” and that there “will be a great gap in all our (family) lives” depending on the sentence.

He said he hoped in the future to have a positive relationship with his grandson.

A lawyer for Boy B told the sentence hearing that his client disputed the jury’s verdict.

‘Remorse’ for ‘inactivity’

He said the boy and his father had fallen out over what happened and that explained the father’s absence at the hearing.

He said the boy was not a risk for re-offending and was being treated for occasional suicidal tendencies.

He said that in his detention he had expressed “remorse” for his “inactivity” on the day.

Last week, Mr Justice Paul McDermott, who is hearing the case, was given psychological and psychiatric reports relating to the two boys who are both now aged 15.

Boy A was also convicted of Ana’s aggravated sexual assault in a manner that involved serious violence to her.

The prosecution said Boy B had lured Ana from her home on the day of the murder on the pretence of meeting Boy A, whom Ana was “interested in”.

She was taken to the abandoned Glenwood House in Lucan in Dublin, about 3km (1.9 miles) away from her home, where Boy A was waiting.

Boy A, the prosecution said, then violently sexually assaulted her as Boy B watched.

Mr Justice McDermott has ordered no more than five journalists can attend the hearing citing the need to protect the boys’ rights, their physical and mental well-being, and their dignity.

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