The jury in the trial of two boys for the murder of 14-year-old Ana Kriégel has been shown a copybook belonging to one of the boys containing a reference to a "satanic pledge".
The teenagers deny murdering the schoolgirl in a derelict house in Lucan, Dublin, on 14 May 2018. The first accused boy also denies aggravated sexual assault.
When Boy B was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Ana in July of last year, he told gardaí that they knew about the copybook they had taken during a search of his home.
Boy B told them that in the copybook was the "satanist" cult. He said he called it that as he did not want certain people to join and he described it as a homework club.
He said they used a points system and there was a prize for someone with the most points. He said he had "cult rules" but they were just for fun and were not meant to be serious.
Pages from the copybook were shown to the jury this morning. On the front of the copybook the subject was filled in as "drawing".
Prosecuting counsel, Brendan Grehan, said there was a drawing of what was entitled "satanic pledge". It was described as a drawing of a circle with a star shaped symbol in the bottom corner of the page. "Satanic pledge" was written at the top of the page.
On the next pages there were a number of circles with what looked like five-pointed stars or two triangles upside down. Mr Grehan said the stars might be called "a pentagram". Also written on one of these pages was a description of a volcano.
On the next page were seven names, including the names of Boy A and Boy B and after each name, some sort of symbol.
Detective Garda Donal Daly said there were also "rules" written on the page.
They were:
"Only pledge hosts can give pledges",
"Don't talk about it",
"Act normal like nothing happened"
"No talking about Jesus or God, only Satan."
Det Gda Daly was cross-examined about the interviews he and his colleague Detective Inspector Damien Gannon conducted with Boy B following his arrest on 24 May last year and his subsequent rearrest six weeks later.
Det Gda Daly told the court he was a qualified level 3 interviewer and was one of the first gardaí to complete a three week level 3 course on interviewing witnesses and suspects.
He said he had not done a course on interviewing children. He said there was a certain category of children who were witnesses or injured parties in a case, who had to be interviewed only by specialist child interviewers, but that was not the situation he and his colleague were in.
He said Boy B was not questioned in a special suite away from a garda station as he was under arrest and proper procedures had to be followed. He said he did not speak beforehand to colleagues about interviewing children.
Defence counsel Damien Colgan asked him about the arrangements made for the boy and his mother in Finglas and Lucan garda stations. The court heard that no other prisoners were brought to the garda stations while the boy was being questioned. And in each station, rooms were specially set up for the boy and his mother to take breaks and consult with his solicitor.
Det Gda Daly said he had not contacted a doctor before interviewing the boy. He said the member in charge at the garda station was responsible for the boy's welfare and he said the interviewing gardaí's function was to carry out the interviews and nothing else. He said they were very cognisant they were dealing with a juvenile.
The garda denied that he had been "disingenuous" or trying to catch the boy out at a certain point in the interview. He said the only thing he was doing was trying to establish the truth.
At another point in one of the interviews, the boy asked his mother to leave the room and his solicitor suggested they go outside and talk. Mr Colgan asked the garda why he had not let the boy leave to talk to his solicitor at that stage.
Det Gda Daly said a conversation was had and there was no demand to leave and no objection to continuing. He said they were at a crucial point in the interview and they wanted to give the boy every opportunity to tell the truth.
Sergeant Patrick Duggan was the member in charge of Boy B's welfare during each of his arrests. He told the court that the boy and his mother signed the custody record to say they had no complaints about his treatment while in custody after he was released without charge on 7 July.
Boy B was arrested again on 12 July and charged with the murder of Ana Kriégel. Inspector Damien Gannon told the court he made no reply after being cautioned.
