RIAD BOUCHAKER’S DEFENCE barrister has suggested that his client may have been trying to terrify and intimidate but not to stab anyone when he waved a knife around near a group of children on a Dublin street, during an incident in which one child suffered severe injuries.
Witness Catherine Carbery today told Mr Bouchaker’s trial 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 lawyer suggested to Ms Carbery that from what she saw, she could not exclude the possibility that the defendant’s intention was, in fact, to “terrify and intimidate”, but not to 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.”
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 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 is expected to last up to five weeks.
Ms Carbery gave evidence via video-link from Melbourne in Australia. She told Karl Finnegan SC, prosecuting, that she and her sister, Alison, were visiting Ireland and were 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 woman, but then heard the woman screaming and thought she was trying to get away while the man had hold of her. She said the man then put his attention on a group of children that were lined up on the footpath and appeared to attack a child with a large knife.
She said she couldn’t tell if the knife made contact with the child, but it appeared to because of the actions of the man.
‘He’s got a knife’
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 said she “can’t tell you for sure”, but she saw a man with a very large knife and a small child. The actions that she saw made her think that it was “highly unlikely that the child wouldn’t be injured”.
“My thought was that the child was stabbed,” she added.
Alison Carbery said she heard screaming and saw a woman trying to protect children from a man she was tussling with. 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.” She said she could clearly remember seeing the man stabbing 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 on the scene 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 said he noticed a member of Dublin Fire Brigade holding Mr Bouchaker’s wrists as though he was restraining him. He said the fire officer told him that the man was alleged to have been involved in stabbing people. Mr Kealy said he told Mr Bouchaker he was going to search him under the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act and that he would handcuff him.
He placed the handcuffs on Mr Bouchaker and carried out a pat down search but did not find any weapons. He found a mobile phone under Mr Bouchaker’s leg and a wallet in his pocket with a social services card in his name. He said Mr Bouchaker was conscious during this time, with his eyes open, but he did not respond to anything the then-garda said.
At the Mater Hospital that afternoon, Mr Kealy said doctors took a urine sample from Mr Bouchaker and tests showed it was negative for toxins. At 3.30pm that afternoon, he learned that Mr Bouchaker had been sedated and was unconscious.
Carlos Antonio Lopes dos Santos told Mr Finnegan that he was walking along Parnell Square East when he heard a lot of screaming and saw “hustle and bustle” with people looking afraid and desperate. He said he saw a man with a knife and a lot of children in a queue.
He said he was just 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 got a second child who was close by and then a third, who was a girl.
He said: “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 appeared to strike the girl in the stomach or chest area.
He recalled seeing a man with a motorbike helmet striking Mr Bouchaker on the head as other people got involved. Mr dos Santos called 999 and went across the road.
From there, he said he saw a girl covered in blood with paramedics trying to help her. He said he believed this was the same girl he had seen being stabbed earlier.
Under cross-examination, Mr Bouchaker’s defence lawyer put it to Mr dos Santos that he did not see the man sticking a knife into the “belly or torso” area of a child. Mr dos Santos disagreed and said he would expect that the medical evidence would confirm what he saw.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and a jury of nine men and three women.