Jury shown CCTV footage of Dublin's Parnell Square knife attack
Flowers and tributes left at the scene of the Parnell Square attack in Dublin. File picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos
A jury has viewed CCTV footage showing the moment a man dressed in black launched a knife attack on a group of children as they stood in line on Dublin's Parnell Square on their way to an after-school crèche.
Garda John Heatherton showed the jury a slowed-down and zoomed-in version of the footage, which captured part of the attack that left several children injured and one girl with severe brain damage after suffering major blood loss due to a stab wound to the heart.
Garda Heatherton told Karl Finnegan SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, that he compiled CCTV footage from across the city centre to track a man wearing a black cap, glasses, a black jacket, jeans, and carrying a rucksack.
At about 1pm, roughly 30 minutes before the attack, Garda Heatherton said the same man appeared to walk behind a group of schoolchildren who were heading towards O'Connell Street. He then turned away from that group and went back up Parnell Square East where, at 1.34pm, he stood at a bus stop in front of the Delfin English Language School for one minute and 46 seconds.
The man was holding a bag in front of him before CCTV footage from the side of a Dublin Bus captured him moving towards the group of children. The jury then viewed footage from the Charles Stewart Hotel, which showed the moment the attack occurred.
Riad Bouchaker, 52, of no fixed address, is on trial at the Central Criminal Court charged with 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 November 23, 2023.
He is further charged with assaulting two other children and an adult male, and with producing a knife in a manner likely to intimidate.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his trial before a jury of nine men and three women is expected to last up to five weeks.
Earlier, Garda Heatherton told Mr Finnegan that the clips he compiled showed what Gardaí believe to be the suspect's movements before and during the incident on Parnell Square East.
The first piece of footage, he said, showed the man dressed in black leaving a Depaul hostel on Little Britain Street at 11.06am.
A male matching that description walked to the Ilac Shopping Centre, with CCTV footage showing him going to a café in Dunnes Stores where he sat with another man. Garda Heatherton said the men left Dunnes and went to a lift area at 11.31am, where they stood for several minutes and appeared to be going through paper documents.
Minutes later, the male wearing the black cap was recorded inside the Ilac Centre, where he appeared to rip up some paper and discard it near a Christmas tree.
Garda Heatherton said the man returned to the hostel on Little Britain Street at 11.50am and appeared to throw a pair of shoes into a bin in the hallway. At 12pm, he left the hostel in the same outfit, carrying the rucksack and now pulling a suitcase on wheels.
He walked to a premises on Talbot Street, where he and a number of other men entered at around the same time. He spoke to two men and appeared to open the suitcase he had been carrying while talking to one of them, Garda Heatherton said. After about 10 minutes, the man in the black cap left and walked in the direction of O'Connell Street.
He arrived at Cavendish Row, at the top of O'Connell Street, at about 12.34pm and spent some time on Rutland Place, a laneway that provides access to the rear of the Delfin school. Garda Heatherton said the man entered the rear of the Delfin school premises twice before emerging onto Parnell Place at 12.57pm.
At the front of the Delfin School, a group of schoolchildren had lined up before walking down Parnell Square, and Garda Heatherton said the man appeared to walk behind them while holding the rucksack in front of him. However, he again walked down Rutland Place before re-emerging onto Parnell Square at 1.32pm.
Garda Heatherton then showed the jury footage from outside the Delfin School and the Charles Stewart Hotel, which captured part of the attack.
Earlier on Thursday, the mother of one of the children whom it is alleged Mr Bouchaker tried to murder told the trial that her son was five years old at the time.
She received a call from a teacher in the early afternoon informing her there had been an incident and that her son was injured but was "okay".
Her son was taken to Crumlin Hospital, where she met him in the back of an ambulance. She said he was watching cartoons on a phone that had been given to him by a garda travelling in the ambulance.
When doctors examined the boy, they found he had a wound to his neck which required paper stitches and a dressing.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and the jury of nine men and three women.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
