'There is humanity in everyone' - Kriegel killers not evil says former Mountjoy governor
The former governor of Mountjoy prison has called on the Government to invest resources to investigate the growing trend of violent juvenile crime.
John Lonergan was commenting on the case of the two youths who murdered Ana Kriegel. He told RTÉ radio’s show that while he believed the two boys had “committed a horribly evil act,” he did not believe that Boy A and Boy B were evil.
“There is humanity in everyone.”
However, he said he is not happy with how society responded to the crime.
The two 15-year-old boys will spend most of the next decade in prison and possibly far longer under the sentencing regime set down by Mr Justice Paul McDermott. Boy A will serve a minimum of 12 years and Boy B a minimum of eight.
After the minimum terms expire, a judge will review their cases and may suspend all or some of the balance. They will stay in the Oberstown child detention facility until they reach 18 years of age when they will transfer to Wheatfield adult prison.
Mr Lonergan said that the Government is showing no leadership into investigating why crimes like this are happening. There is a growing trend among young people that they don’t go out without a knife on their person, he said.
“That’s a bad indication. They need to use this case to highlight there is a need for education. It is not good enough for Josepha Madigan to say it is up to the parents.”
Mr Lonergan said that it was alarming that the Government was not putting more resources into monitoring this situation.
