In a powerful victim impact statement, Ana Kriégel's mother Geraldine paid tribute to her 14-year-old daughter and said life without her was not even an existence, but a misery they must endure for the rest of their lives.
Mrs Kriégel told the court that 10 August 2006, the day the court declared they could become Ana's parents, was the happiest of their lives.
She described Ana as "the most wonderful child in the world" and said she had brought them everything they had dreamed of throughout the laborious adoption process.
All of the love and happiness that they longed for, suddenly flooded into their lives. She said Ana was "wild and wonderful and electric, so full of fun and madness and laughter".
And she said she and her husband, Patric, could not believe the happiness and joy they had found in their lives. Ana, she said, was the love of their lives.
"We waited and waited for our little girl to come home but she never did."
Every single night, she said, their daughter kissed them good night and told them in French, "good night, sleep tight, have beautiful dreams, I love you".
She could not do that anymore, Mrs Kriégel said, and told the judge she could not tell him how badly it hurts.
She described the cold fear they felt when Ana did not come home on 14 May last year, knowing she was in serious danger, knowing something or someone prevented her from coming home to them.
They knew she would never stay out without permission. She would never hurt them.
She spoke of the panic, dread and agonising they went through as hours turned into days.
They did not know what happened, but she turned to the court room as she said "but somebody did, somebody knew".
"We waited and waited for our little girl to come home," she said, "but she never did."
She said 17 May 2018 was the saddest day of their lives. She said they heard the words, no parent wanted to hear: "We are so sorry", when their precious little girl's body had been found.
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She said there was no way to describe the depth of pain and haunting nightmares they lived with following the formal identification of Ana's body in such traumatic and horrific circumstances.
She said they brought Ana to a safe place, a quiet country village, a leafy village, where the only sounds in the morning were the doves cooing.
No one, she said, could suspect the evil that lay in wait for her.
No one, she said, could have anticipated the darkness that swirled in the souls of those who murdered and violated her.
How could any child or even any adult imagine, in their worst nightmares, the danger that lay ahead?
She wanted to live, but she was not permitted to do that.
Mrs Kriégel said their lives were destroyed by what had happened to Ana.
They could not look at a group of teenage boys in the same way ever again. "That cold fear hits and brings all the horror back."
She said they lie awake at night, thinking about the fear Ana felt knowing she was going to be killed.
They pace the house at night agonising about the torture she went through, the horrendous pain she suffered, and the sadistic violation of her beautiful, pure and innocent body.
She said it was "unbearable and inhuman" that she was left to rot in "that squalid hell hole" for over three days.
Ana's mother said the whole family and friends suffered so terribly every day and every night with the agony of knowing now, in the most explicit detail, what Ana was subjected to and knowing her private life along with the distorted misrepresentations of her, by a "twisted mind with tainted eyes" had been displayed on every TV station and newspaper in Ireland and across the world.
Ana, she said, was just a little girl with so many hopes and dreams and so much love inside her that she shared generously with all who knew her.
Her dream was to build a hotel called "The AnaLove hotel". She drew detailed floor plans.
Her parents were to have a special cottage on the land where they could spend holidays and be near her. She said her plans, their future, were shattered.
Mrs Kriegel said she never got to meet her little sisters in her birth family, and they were devastated.
She was to meet them for the first time this year but they had to deliver the heartbreaking news to her birth family they would never ever see her.
She had written to them and said she was afraid she would never meet them. Her fear was warranted.
They never got to feel her warm hugs and loving kisses or see her dance so elegantly or hear her infectious laughter and they would never experience that joy again.
She said they had lost their child and the children she dreamed of having. "There are no words," she added.
Mrs Kriegel said Ana embraced all of the wonderful experiences life brought her.
She was so kind to everyone. The pain of living without her was unbearable, she said, and there was such emptiness in their lives without her.
It was no longer a life, nor even an existence, but a misery they must endure for the rest of their lives. Every family occasion was entrenched with pain and sorrow.
How could there be any solace in this conviction as Ana's death was irreversible, she asked.
She spoke about a paragraph Ana had been asked to write at the beginning of first year in secondary school about her hopes for the future.
She said she had hoped to get into the secondary school she was in and so she was "one goal down".
She also wanted to go to a Paris university like her dad, the hardest one to get into, and when she came home from Paris she would like to get a dog.
She said she would like to get married but she was not sure she wanted babies yet. She hoped she would have a good life and that everyone she met would be nice.
Mrs Kriegel said they always felt Ana was too good to be true.
She was an ephemeral angel in their hearts and the hearts of people of Ireland and Russia, with love, forever.
They were a broken family, she said. Their hearts ached for Ana.
So many people in her life were traumatised and suffered nightmares, stress and anxiety, not just adults, but children who are not only traumatised but in fear of their own lives. Ana was lost to all the people who loved her.
She addressed her daughter and said "thank you for giving us all of your precious love. We miss you, we love you, no one can ever take that away from us".
Members of Ana's family were upset after the victim impact statement was read.
Mr Justice McDermott adjourned proceedings for a few minutes immediately afterwards.
The sentencing has been adjourned until next Tuesday.
