Ana Kriegel’s cold and callous murderers will enjoy TV until 2am, their own en-suite rooms and the best education money can buy.
Boy A and Boy B will be held in the cushy regime of Oberstown Children Detention Campus until they turn 18.
And they won’t even be held in a prison cell. At Oberstown they prefer “bedroom” or “residential unit,” - though the doors are locked at night.
The teenagers, who lured Ana to a derelict farm house where she was choked and bludgeoned before suffering a vile sexual assault, won’t even be called offenders.
Instead they will be described as “young people in conflict with the law”.
The taxpayer will foot the bill for keeping the killers, both 15, under lock and key.
It will cost €340,983 a year each to keep Boy A and Boy B in detention until they are old enough to be sent to an adult prison.
That’s 10 times the European average. The final bill to taxpayers will top €2million for the next three years.
Set in 25 acres in North Co Dublin, the detention centre is arguably the best resourced school in the country – including the top private colleges.
The pupil-to-teacher ratio is one educator to four detainees. That’s effectively private schooling and one of the reasons it costs €934 a day for each young person.
Outstanding sports facilities and a gym –where five boys recently qualified as Level 4 personal trainers – forms part of the benign regime.
Other detainees recently qualified for silver and silver and bronze Gaisce, The President’s Awards
The Government spent €54million bringing Oberstown up to scratch.
It’s now a bright modern facility with the detainees each having their own TV which is turned off remotely at 2am until 9am the next morning.
In addition each self-contained unit accommodating eight, also boasts a lounge.
Boy A and Boy will be able to play video games and watch movies and maintain contact with families via phone.
Visiting hours are also liberal - 10am to 5pm on weekdays and 9am to noon at the weekends.
During the week, meals are provided by an outside catering company with staff often cooking a full Irish at the weekends.
Ana’s killers were both classed as being of above average intelligence in psychiatric and psychological evaluations.
Boy B was described as having a high IQ. Both will be able to sit State exams. Residents, aged 13 to 17 years also have full access to mental health and addiction services and other programmes like sex education and teen parenting.
The most recent report by the facility showed 72 males and three females at Oberstown.
Detainees who break discipline can be confined but it’s not called solitary confinement.
Instead at Oberstown they prefer the term “single seclusion.”
Boy A, was sentenced to life and must serve 12 years before his case is reviewed. He was also given an eight year sentence for aggravated sexual assault. Boy B was sentenced to 15 years for her murder – to be reviewed after eight years.
That means both will be moved into adult prison when they are 18 in about three years time.
Passing sentence, Justice Paul McDermot told the killers: “Both of you will be required to serve lengthy periods of detention but you will have the opportunity to return to your families, your community, [and] return to society, when you are relatively young men.”
