A man has told the trial of two teenagers accused of the murder of 14-year-old Ana Kriégel that he saw a schoolboy with a backpack making a beeline for the disused farmhouse where her body was found on the evening she was last seen.
The man said he assumed the boy was taking a shortcut home.
The two accused boys have denied murdering the 14-year-old schoolgirl. One of them also denies violently sexually assaulting her.
An earlier order restricting the publication of evidence in the trial until its conclusion, was varied by the court this afternoon, allowing RTÉ and other outlets to continue contemporaneous reporting of the case.
Gerard Redmond told the court he walks his dog in St Catherine's Park every day.
On the evening of 14 May 2018, he said he saw a young schoolboy on the path ahead of him at around seven or eight minutes past five o’clock.
He was wearing a backpack and walking on a very narrow, low embankment. He saw the boy drop down into a ditch and come up on the far side into a large field surrounding the disused farmhouse, Glenwood House.
Mr Redmond said the boy went into the field through a gap in the hedge and his impression was that he knew it was there.
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He said the boy made a beeline towards the derelict farmhouse and he assumed he was taking a shortcut home. He said the last time he saw him he was heading across the field in the direction of the farmhouse.
Earlier, another man told the court he met one of the accused boys in the park, before 6pm on 14 May, limping and with blood on his T-shirt.
The man said he asked Boy A if he was alright as he looked rough and he was concerned someone had had a go at him.
But he said the boy replied that he had fallen or something like that. He said he seemed embarrassed and agreed with prosecuting counsel, Brendan Grehan, that the boy did not really want to talk to him.
Under cross-examination, he agreed the boy did not have blood on his face.
A friend of Boy A told the court the accused boy called to his house on the same evening. He was holding his arm up to his chest and was limping. There was blood on his T-shirt.
He said he looked scared and told him he had been attacked by two people in the park. The boy said he told him he should go home to his parents.
This boy also told the court about being in Boy B's house two days after Ana Kriégel's body was found.
He said boy B had makeshift hammers and weapons, which he had made out of sticks and rocks. He said he and Boy B spoke about what was going on with Ana Kriégel being found, but he did not really remember what they had spoken about specifically. He said Boy B was sad.
Under cross-examination by lawyers for Boy B, he told the court that Boy B sometimes did not trust Boy A. He said sometimes the two accused boys did not get along.
A 15-year-old girl told the court she had seen Boy B and Ana Kriégel together in St Catherine's Park on 14 May.
She said they were having a brisk walk - a sort of "skippy jump walk" - and were laughing and talking. She said they looked like they were getting on well together.
The trial will continue on Tuesday.
