Witnesses tell Riad Bouchaker trial they saw children stabbed during Parnell Square attack
The case is being heard at the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA)
Riad Bouchaker's defence barrister has suggested that his client may have been trying to terrify and intimidate, rather than stab anyone, when he waved a knife near a group of children on a Dublin street during an incident in which one child suffered severe injuries.
Witness Catherine Carbery told Mr Bouchaker's trial on Wednesday that she was walking near Parnell Square in Dublin city centre when she saw a man who “appeared to be attacking” a child with a knife.
Under cross-examination, Mr Bouchaker's defence counsel suggested to Ms Carbery that, based on what she saw, she could not exclude the possibility that the defendant's intention was to “terrify and intimidate”, rather than stab, when he waved the knife.
Ms Carbery replied: “I can only state what I believe was happening, and I believe he was injuring the child.”
Mr 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 with assault causing serious harm to crèche worker Leanne Flynn, at Parnell Square East in Dublin city on November 23, 2023.
He is further charged with assaulting two other children and an adult man, and with producing a knife in a manner likely to intimidate.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial is expected to last up to five weeks.
Ms Carbery gave evidence via video link from Melbourne, Australia. She told Karl Finnegan SC, prosecuting, that she and her sister, Alison, were visiting Ireland and walking along O'Connell Street on their way to the Hugh Lane Gallery for an Andy Warhol exhibition.
She noticed what appeared to be a “heated discussion” between a man and a woman, but then heard the woman screaming and believed she was trying to get away while the man held onto her.
She said the man then turned his attention to a group of children lined up on the footpath and appeared to attack a child with a large knife.
She said she could not tell whether the knife made contact with the child, but it appeared to have done so based on the man's actions.
Under cross-examination, defence counsel asked if it was an “assumption” on Ms Carbery's part that the man was trying to stab the child.
She replied that she “can't tell you for sure”, but saw a man with a very large knife and a small child. The actions she witnessed made her think it was “highly unlikely that the child wouldn't be injured”.
“My thought was that the child was stabbed,” she added.
Alison Carbery told the court she heard screaming and saw a woman trying to protect children from a man she was struggling with.
She said she saw the woman being spun around and immediately noticed the man had a knife.
She shouted to her sister: “He's got a knife, he's stabbing the children.”
Ms Carbery said she could clearly remember seeing the man stab one of the children.
Under cross-examination, she said she could “definitively say the knife was plunged into the torso of the child”.
Former garda Adam Kealy told Mr Finnegan that he and a colleague were the first two gardaí to arrive at Parnell Square.
He said his colleague went across the road to where members of the public said a knife had been moved, while Mr Kealy went to where Mr Bouchaker was lying prone on the ground.
He noticed a member of Dublin Fire Brigade holding Mr Bouchaker's wrists as if restraining him.
Mr Kealy said the firefighter told him the man was alleged to have been involved in stabbings.
He said he informed Mr Bouchaker that he was going to search him under the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act and place him in handcuffs.
Mr Kealy said he handcuffed Mr Bouchaker and carried out a pat-down search but found no weapons.
He found a mobile phone under Mr Bouchaker's leg and a wallet containing a social services card in his name.
Mr Bouchaker was conscious throughout, with his eyes open, but did not respond to anything said to him, the court heard.
At the Mater Hospital that afternoon, Mr Kealy said doctors took a urine sample from Mr Bouchaker and tests returned negative results for toxins.
At about 3.30pm, he learned that Mr Bouchaker had been sedated and was unconscious.
Carlos Antonio Lopes dos Santos told the court he was walking along Parnell Square East when he heard screaming and saw “hustle and bustle”, with people appearing frightened and distressed.
He said he saw a man with a knife and a group of children standing in a queue.
Mr dos Santos said he was only a few steps away when he saw the man holding a child by the arm and quickly moving the knife with his other hand “in a kind of a rush”.
He said the man then targeted a second child nearby and then a third child, a girl.
“I remember the third child was the one that really got my attention because he dug the knife in very profoundly, very deeply,” he said.
He said the girl appeared to have been struck in the stomach or chest area.
Mr dos Santos recalled seeing a man wearing a motorbike helmet strike Mr Bouchaker on the head as other members of the public intervened.
He called 999 and crossed the road. From there, he said he saw a girl covered in blood while paramedics attempted to treat her.
He believed she was the same girl he had seen being stabbed earlier.
Under cross-examination, defence counsel suggested that he did not see the man insert a knife into the “belly or torso” of a child.
Mr dos Santos disagreed and said he expected the medical evidence would confirm what he had witnessed.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and a jury comprising nine men and three women.
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