{"id":253525,"date":"2026-01-20T02:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/253525\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T02:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:37:07","slug":"psychiatrists-clash-over-mans-fitness-to-be-tried-over-attempted-murder-of-three-children-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/253525\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychiatrists clash over man\u2019s fitness to be tried over attempted murder of three children \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expert psychiatric witnesses have disagreed before the Central Criminal Court<\/a> whether a man charged with assaulting a care worker and attempting to murder three children on Parnell Square in Dublin in late 2023 is fit to stand trial.<\/p>\n

Riad Bouchaker (52), a native of Algeria of no fixed abode, is charged with the attempted murder of two girls and one boy, and with assault causing serious harm to a care worker.<\/p>\n

He is also charged with three counts of assault causing harm to two other young children and a passerby, who had intervened to assist, and one count of the production of a knife.<\/p>\n

The offences are alleged to have occurred during an incident at Parnell Square East in Dublin on the afternoon of November 23rd, 2023.<\/p>\n

When the hearing of a defence application to have Mr Bouchaker held unfit to stand trial opened last month, Mr Justice Tony Hunt was told the parties agreed no one is arguing for the defence of not guilty by reason of insanity.<\/p>\n

On Monday a consultant forensic psychiatrist called as an expert witness for the prosecution said he accepted Mr Bouchaker has a serious brain injury but his opinion is that he is fit to plead, to weigh his choices and to stand trial. This might require some accommodations, including a trained interpreter and simplified questions, he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Bouchaker, he said, has an acquired brain injury secondary to neurosurgery in 2021; suffered a head injury in the aftermath of the alleged offences in 2023, and has a neurocognitive disorder.<\/p>\n

A psychologist who separately assessed Mr Bouchaker for the prosecution considered it was possible for Mr Bouchaker to engage in the trial process if matters were simplified and an intermediary appointed, the court heard. <\/p>\n

A consultant forensic psychiatrist called as an expert witness for the defence stood over their own opinion that Mr Bouchaker has a mental disorder of moderate dementia and, because of that, is unfit to plead, to stand trial and to weigh evidence and his choices in a serious criminal case.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Man charged with Parnell Square attack on children unfit to stand trial, court toldOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The consultant agreed with Mr Justice Hunt the discussion about fitness to plead would not be necessary were it not for a significant head injury suffered by Mr Bouchaker in the immediate aftermath of the incident at Parnell Square East. <\/p>\n

The consultant\u2019s view was that, at the time of the alleged offences, Mr Bouchaker had a mild cognitive impairment but now has moderate dementia.<\/p>\n

The appointment of an intermediary to assist Mr Bouchaker during the trial process would not be sufficient to get over the level of moderate dementia he is now living with, the defence expert said. They said Mr Bouchaker is unable to weigh up choices required during a criminal process and his level of dysfunction would be beyond what an intermediary or support person could do.<\/p>\n

The consultant told the judge last month Mr Bouchaker has a complex medical history, had surgery on his brain for a benign tumour in 2021 and also suffered a brain injury \u201cin the course of members of the public intervening\u201d on the day of the alleged offences.<\/p>\n

The expert said Mr Bouchaker\u2019s only possible destination in the medium to long term would be at the Central Mental Hospital <\/a>(CMH) and, if admitted there, he would be treated by a multidisciplinary team. If found unfit to stand trial, he would be reviewed on a six-monthly basis by the mental health criminal law review board, the consultant added.<\/p>\n

Mr Justice Hunt has directed none of the medical witnesses, or the legal team representing Mr Bouchaker, can be identified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Expert psychiatric witnesses have disagreed before the Central Criminal Court whether a man charged with assaulting a care…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42851,62627,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-253525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-central-criminal-court","tag-central-mental-hospital","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}