A 19-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder and rape of Michaela Davis.
The body of the 12-year-old was found on the banks of the Royal Canal near her home in Clonsilla on the afternoon of 28 August 2010.
Jonathan Byrne, of Lohunda Downs in Clonsilla, admitted raping Michaela Davis twice before strangling her at the playing fields on Porterstown Road in Clonsilla.
He then dragged her body away and left her on the bank of the Royal Canal where it was found the following afternoon.
Her family said afterwards they were happy with the verdict and that Michaela deserved justice for the pain and suffering she endured in the last moments of her life.
Michaela Davis's parents Brendan and Deirdre said the core of their family life had come to an end after the murder.
Michaela Davis had just started in a new school on 27 August 2010 and was very excited and happy. The court was told she went out a few times that evening but always came back at the time her mother told her.
At 11.30pm she asked again to go out for 15 minutes - when she had not returned by 2am, her father called gardaí.
Jonathan Byrne was 18 at the time and in a relationship with Michaela, whom he knew was only 12. Her parents told her to end it - they suspected he was giving her alcohol but thought Mr Byrne was only 14.
As gardaí searched for Michaela, they woke Jonathan Byrne at 3.45am. He lied to them and told them he left her at 11pm.
Michaela's body was found the following afternoon.
When they later searched his bedroom the next day, Byrne's father alerted them to a bag of wet clothes hidden in the base of his bed.
The teenager was arrested and admitted he had raped Michaela twice and strangled her. He said he had dragged her body around the fields, not knowing what to do with it, before dumping it beside the canal bank.
Mr Justice Paul Carney registered the now 19-year-old as a sex offender and sentenced him to life in prison.
