The mother of a five-year-old girl stabbed near a crechè on Parnell Square in Dublin in 2023 has described seeing her daughter’s pink backpack and runners on the ground while medics tried to resuscitate her.
A jury at the Central Criminal Court was told that 52-year-old Riad Bouchaker intended to kill three young children when he stabbed them on 23 November, 2023, targeting their upper body, head, neck and chest areas.
He has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder of two girls and a boy, as well as assaulting and causing serious harm to a crechè worker, who tried to protect the children. He has also denied assaulting two other children and a passer-by, who intervened, as well as possession of a knife.
Asked by prosecuting counsel, Karl Finnegan how her daughter was now, the mother of the little girl, who is now almost eight, said she was currently in a wheelchair, non-verbal and only able to answer yes or no questions by blinking.
The girl’s mother told the trial her daughter had just turned five years old at the time of the attacks.
The woman said she worked in the city centre and would normally drop her daughter at crechè in the morning and pick her up from afterschool on her way home. The crechè workers would drop her and collect her from school. On this day, the woman said she hadn’t been feeling well and almost didn’t go to work.
She became emotional in the witness box as she described getting a phone call from the owner of the crechè at 145pm. She said the owner was crying and said “oh my god, oh my god” before telling her daughter had been stabbed and she had to come.
The woman described running over towards the school. As she got to the spire on O’Connell Street she said she could see the area was cordoned off and she could see ambulances, fire trucks and garda cars. She said she stopped breathing for a second but then kept running.
Gardai let her through the cordon and she said she could see five paramedics around her daughter working on her. She said she could see her daughter’s pink backpack and her pink runners. She said she called her husband and then called her mother and asked her to start praying.
Her daughter was taken to Temple Street hospital and was taken straight into theatre for emergency surgery to her heart. The woman said the doctors were trying to control the blood loss and she told the court her daughter had been without oxygen for 40 minutes, causing severe damage to her brain, in particular to her motor skills.
She said her daughter now suffers from dystonia, meaning her muscles did the opposite of what she wanted them to do, meaning she had to work twice as hard to move and could not do anything for herself. She agreed that everyone was continuing to try to do the best for her.
Earlier, Mr Finnegan told the jury that the prosecution case was that Riad Bouchaker was responsible for the attacks and that he intended to kill the three children whose attempted murder he has denied.
Mr Finnegan said the children were being brought to an afterschool near Parnell Square by crechè staff. He said Riad Bouchaker approached the group and began stabbing or attempting to stab the children.
Mr Finnegan said crèche worker Leanne Flynn intervened and was stabbed herself. He said she would tell the jury that she became aware of Mr Bouchaker close by and saw him coming towards the children with a knife and begin jabbing at them.
She is expected to say she grabbed him from behind and pulled him back and shouted at him to get away from the children. She subsequently realised she had been stabbed. She had suffered a large laceration to her left side.
Mr Finnegan said members of the public brought Mr Bouchaker to the ground and the knife was removed from him. A French man who saw the attacks taking place is expected to tell the jury that he crossed the road to intervene. He grabbed Mr Bouchaker’s hand and managed to get hold of the knife and throw it away, suffering a cut to his hand and a scratch to his face in the process.
The jury was told it was the prosecution case that Mr Bouchaker intended to kill two girls and a boy. The injuries suffered by one of the girls, to her chest and heart, were life-threatening. A national ambulance critical care technician who was flagged down will say that she had no pulse and was not breathing as CPR was performed. Her resuscitation was continued at the scene and she was brought to Temple Street hospital.
Another young girl had blood matted in her hair and bone fragments near the crown of her head. And Mr Finnegan said the jurors would also hear about the injuries to the other children.
Mr Finnegan said intent was rarely proved by a person announcing it, but it could be proved by what a person did.
He said the prosecution was asking the jury to consider the use of the knife, the selection of young children, the targeting of upper body, neck, chest and head areas, the repeated stabbing and jabbing motions, Mr Bouchaker’s movements beforehand and the need for members of the public to intervene to stop him.
Mr Bouchaker who had brain surgery in 2021, was injured again when members of the public intervened to stop the attack and could not be interviewed by gardai until a month later.
He told gardai about a letter he had received from social welfare which he said had caused him upset. Mr Bouchaker repeatedly told gardai he was sick, not in his right state of mind and did not mean to kill anyone.
Mr Finnegan said Mr Bouchaker told gardai he had made a mistake and had done “something” but didn’t know what it was. He said he had thrown something away and found himself with a knife.
In his garda interviews, he said he did not want to kill and did not intend to kill, while making a repeated stabbing movement with his hand. He told them he was upset because social welfare refused him on an application and he was not in his right state of mind. He said he had done something bad but was sure he did not want to kill or harm children.
The jury was told Mr Bouchaker now had an acquired brain injury as a result of his previous surgery and the head injury he sustained during the incident.
However, Mr Finnegan said he had been found fit to stand trial and there was no suggestion that he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the incident. He said no defence was being put forward based on his cognitive abilities at the time.
The trial is expected to last up to five weeks.