A FIREFIGHTER HAS described seeing an “internal organ protruding through” a large laceration on the back of a crèche worker, who was near to where a little girl in pink shoes was receiving emergency treatment following reports of a knife attack in Dublin city centre.
Brian Mulvaney was the station officer in charge of a fire truck with three firefighter paramedics and a driver. He said he took the decision to go to Parnell Square having heard details of what was alleged to have happened there at about 1.30pm on 23 November 2023.
Mr Mulvaney was giving evidence in the trial of Riad Bouchaker, who denies attempting to murder three children and assaulting others. He is on trial at the Central Criminal Court.
Mr Mulvaney told prosecution counsel Carol Doherty BL that when he arrived, he found a “chaotic” scene and immediately saw a little girl on the path receiving CPR from a paramedic and a member of the public. “The little girl was on her back,” he said. “Her pink shoes, I remember them to this day. They stood out.”
He also saw a woman, crèche worker Leanne Flynn, sitting on the steps of a hotel nearby who looked in obvious distress. He sent one of his crew to help the little girl and noticed there was a man, the accused, lying on the ground further down the footpath surrounded by a cordon of women holding hands to stop people getting at him.
Mr Mulvaney directed his crew to help the woman and the girl and moved towards Mr Bouchaker. He said the women initially screamed at him to “get back”, but when they realised he was a firefighter, they allowed him to access Mr Bouchaker. More paramedics arrived to lend a hand so Mr Mulvaney returned to the woman on the steps.
He noticed she had a lot of blood on her back and she was struggling to breathe. When he lifted her top, he saw a large laceration and an internal organ protruding through, which he thought might have been her lung. He tried to dress the wound and got her onto a stretcher and into an ambulance as quickly as he could.
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 crèche worker Leanne Flynn, at Parnell Square East in Dublin City on 23 November 2023.
He is further charged with assaulting two other children and a teenager and with producing a knife in a manner likely to intimidate.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and his trial is expected to last up to five weeks.
Advanced paramedic David Hosback told Ms Doherty that he arrived at the scene and found that a paramedic had already placed a syringe into the stricken girl’s bone marrow to administer medication directly into her bloodstream.
This paramedic had also administered various drugs and carried out chest compressions.
Mr Hosback assisted with inserting a breathing tube into her neck and helped to administer a blood transfusion once the girl was placed into an ambulance to be brought to Temple Street Hospital.
Detective Garda Aaron Grattan told Karl Finnegan SC, prosecuting, that he was in an unmarked patrol car with two colleagues from the Special Detective Unit when they received a call about the alleged stabbing.
He also described the scene as “chaotic” and said he saw the little girl being attended to by emergency services.
He went to the Mater Hospital where he knew Ms Flynn had been taken along the man he later learned to be Mr Bouchaker. He said he seized Mr Bouchaker’s clothes, runners and wallet and placed them in evidence bags.
He also retrieved a hat from near where Mr Bouchaker had been lying on the ground on Parnell Square while being attended to by paramedics.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt sent the jury of nine men and three women home after lunch today as one of the jurors said they had a personal matter to attend to.