LAST UPDATE | 6 hrs ago

A COURT HAS heard that a seven-year-old child stabbed during an attack at Parnell Square in Dublin in November 2023 is now non-verbal, uses a wheelchair and is fed through a tube after suffering brain damage as a result of the incident. 

Riad Bouchaker (52), of no fixed address, has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of two girls and one boy, and assault causing serious harm to a care worker, at Parnell Square East in Dublin City on 23 November 2023.

He has also pleaded not guilty to three counts of assault causing harm as well as the possession and production of a 36cm kitchen knife.

Mr Bouchaker has denied all charges made against him.

A five-year-old girl and a woman in her 30s were left in a critical condition after the attack. A five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl were also injured. 

In a hearing in the Central Criminal Court in Dublin today, the mother of the girl, who was five at the time of the attack, gave evidence before trial judge Tony Hunt and a jury of nine men and three women.

The mother said that at 1.45pm on 23 November 2023, she received a call from the owner of the after-school centre.

“Usually when after-school or school calls you something is wrong, so I thought maybe she had a fall or something,” she said.

“[The owner] was in tears and she said ‘oh my god, [your daughter] has been stabbed, you have to come’.”

The mother said she ran through Dublin city centre from her work to the after-school centre. “I arrived and it was already cordoned by garda and there was a crowd of people behind that cordon. I could see it from the Spire,” she said.

“I could see ambulances, fire trucks and garda cars. I stopped breathing for a second then I kept running until I got there,” she said, adding that gardaí let her through the cordon when she told them her name.

The mother said the first thing she saw at the scene was “the man in question”, who she indicated was Mr Bouchaker, being put into the ambulance, she then saw a group of paramedics working on her daughter. 

“They were surrounding her. I could see her pink backpack and pink shoes. I stopped and I let them work because I couldn’t do anything at that moment.”

“I got the call at 1.45pm, at 1.52pm I was already in front of the school and I called my husband. At 1.54pm I called my mother and told her what happened and for her to start praying.”

She said her daughter’s clothing had to be removed so that paramedics could assess her injuries. She was then brought by ambulance to Temple Street hospital where she was immediately rushed to theatre.

The mother said that after an hour doctors knew to an extent her daughter’s injury and were trying to stop blood flow and “regain life into her”.

“I remember the first question I asked when the doctors came. I asked ‘is she dead?’”.

The mother said her daughter was without oxygen for forty minutes, causing severe damage to her brain. After three weeks in ICU, she was extubated and placed under sedation to allow doctors to understand the damage.

“She did suffer some seizures. They had performed an emergency heart surgery, so she had staples around her heart. They knew the injury has caused major damage in her motor skills,” the mother said. 

“[She] is currently in a wheelchair and she is non-verbal. She is learning how to swallow, so her nutrition is all through a tube in her stomach. She is now able to answer yes or no through blinking.”

“She has a condition that causes her muscles to do the absolute opposite of what we want them to do. She cannot go to the toilet by herself. She cannot reach for anything by herself. I cannot convince her to fall asleep, she has to take medication to fall asleep.”

‘You must put all of that out of your minds’

Before the child’s mother was called to give evidence, judge Hunt told the jury that as the accused is entitled to the presumption of innocence, the obligation to prove the charges against Mr Bouchaker beyond all reasonable doubt is on the prosecution.

Addressing the jury, representative for the prosecution Senior Counsel Carl Finnegan, gave an overview of the eight charges against Mr Bouchaker.

He said “the evidence will prove that the accused intended to kill”.

He advised the jury to only make their decisions based on the evidence presented in the trial, which he said will include CCTV footage of the incident, evidence from gardaí, as well as parents of some of the school children and eyewitnesses. 

“This case concerns an incident that attracted a very considerable amount of public attention.” “You must put all of that out of your minds,” he added.

He also reminded the jury that Mr Bouchaker suffers from an acquired brain injury as a result of a previous benign brain tumour, and a head injury he suffered in the course of intervention by members of the public on the day of the incident.

“There is no suggestion that Mr Bouchaker was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the incident,” Mr Finnegan said, adding that no defence has been put forward against the charges based on the accused’s cognitive function.

Mr Finnegan said the incident on 23 November 2023 occurred when a group of school children were being escorted from school to a crèche for after-school care.

“We say that the accused approached those children and began stabbing or attempting to stab,” he said, adding that an after-school care worker then intervened and was also stabbed.

“Members of the public intervened, the accused was brought to the ground, and the knife was removed from him,” he said.

Mr Finnegan said that an after-school carer who was escorting the children to a crèche, said she saw Mr Bouchaker approach the children with a knife and begin stabbing at them.

He said the worker then grabbed the accused from behind and shouted at him to get away from the children. During this interaction she became aware she had also been stabbed.

He said that after the incident gardaí found Mr Bouchaker restrained on the ground and identified him through a public services card on his person. He was hospitalised in the Mater hospital.

Finnegan said that during the course of garda interviews, Mr Bouchaker said “he did something he didn’t know what it was. He knew he had done something”.

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He said Mr Bouchaker then made what was described as stabbing motions and said he had not wanted to kill.

“He said he was upset social welfare refused him on an application and he was not in his right state of mind,” he said.

“He said he had done something bad but was sure he did not want to kill or harm.”

Mr Finnegan said “intent is rarely proved by a person announcing it, It could however be proved by what a person does”.

He said he wanted the jury to consider several factors, including:”The use of the knife, the selection of young children, the targeting of upper body areas, repeated stabbing or jabbing motions, his movements beforehand and the need for members of the public to intervene.

“What I said to you is not evidence in the case, it is what I anticipate you will hear,” he added.

Evidence

Several more parents whose children were part of the group being escorted to after-school at the time of the attack gave evidence on the stand this afternoon.

A mother whose daughter was six years old at the time of the incident agreed her child had an injury to the back of her head which caused fragments of bone to be exposed.

She agreed that the child, who is now eight years old, received surgery in Crumlin Hospital and was discharged the following day. She returned to school at the beginning of December.

The father of two daughters who were at the incident said one of his daughters had a “significant bump on the back of her head and a nick behind her ear”, and was in a state of shock when he and his wife saw her.

“I sat in the senior infant classroom with [my wife and daughter], I noticed there was a lot of hair on [my daughter’s] right shoulder. She soiled herself, she was very quiet and her top was cut,” he said.

The father of a boy who was five years old at the time of attack said he and his partner rushed to the school after hearing there was an incident.

“The first thing I saw [when I saw my son] was that the jacket of the sleeve had a lot of blood on it, which raised my alarm bells so I had to check him,” he said, adding that this was when he noticed there was a slash on the arm of his son’s coat.

He said each layer of clothing he pulled up was slashed and there was a cut by his son’s right nipple.

He agreed that Gardaí took the child’s clothing and took photos of his injuries, and the family were then brought to Temple Street hospital where the child’s wound was cleaned and dressed, before they went home.

The trial will continue at 11.30am Thursday when the jury will be shown CCTV footage of the incident on 23 November 2023. 

The verdict available to the jury is one of guilty or not guilty. The trial is expected to last for up to five weeks.