It was the trial that shocked the nation and the evidence put before the court could have come from the script of the most vile horror movie.
What was heard in the absence of the jury was even worse and so depraved and wicked it can only be described as bordering on the demonic.
Not only had two 13-year old boys lured an innocent young girl to the most violent death imaginable, Ana’s murder and sexual assault was meticulously planned down to the last horrific detail.
In the weeks and months leading up to her murder, Boy A was making preparations for what would be one of the worst crimes ever committed in this country.
He had no shortage of material available on the internet for him to carry out his obscene fantasies which will raise serious questions about how young children can gain unrestricted access to such vile content.
While most adults will find it difficult to label young children as evil, in the case of Boy A there can be no other description as by his actions he has showed himself to be a disturbed and twisted individual.
Comparisons with the murder of Jamie Bulger case are wide of the mark as it is unlikely his killers Robert Thompson and Jon Venables put the same level of planning into that heinous crime.
Ana’s murder on the other hand was months in the making and Boy A even went so far as to find the perfect location well in advance of the crime.
Gardai discovered that Boy A had a violent porn obsession and when they searched his mobile phone they found he had been searching for violent child abuse and even women being forced to have sex with horses.
Investigators also uncovered files with pornographic images of violence against children and women and evidence of searches for gruesome ways to kill someone.
Boy A was also obsessed by weapons and one a video on his phone there is a man with wooden weapon. A few months later he would beat Ana to death with a piece of wood.
No doubt there will be questions raised about how young children can access such vile online material and why internet providers are allowed to profit from providing it.
Every parent in the country will find it hard to understand why a boy who should have being doing his homework was instead using technology and the internet to plan the murder and sexual assault of a young girl.
They might well ask would Ana be alive to day if Boy A did not have access to the material described in court or would he have carried out this horrible crime anyway because he was just plain evil.
We’ll never know but by their actions they have destroyed their own lives and blighted their families’ lives and deprived Ana’s parents of their beautiful daughter.
