Riad Bouchaker found guilty of attempted murder of children at Parnell Square

Eoin Reynolds

Riad Bouchaker has been found guilty of all eight counts against him, including the attempted murder of three children on Parnell Square East in 2023.

The attacks sparked riots across Dublin city and left one girl with a devastating, life-long brain injury.

The jury spent about five hours over two days considering their verdicts, which were unanimous in relation to each count.

Bouchaker, of no fixed address, had denied the attempted murder of two girls and one boy, and assault causing serious harm to creche worker Leanne Flynn, at Parnell Square East in Dublin City on November 23rd, 2023.

He also denied assaulting two other children and then-teenager Alan Loren-Guille and producing a knife in a manner likely to intimidate.

The jury of nine men and three women began their deliberations on Tuesday following a three-week trial. During the trial, they heard evidence that Bouchaker was upset after failing to secure social welfare payments. He went to his hostel on Little Britain St in Dublin city centre, armed himself with a 36cm carving knife and walked to Parnell Square where he asked several people for the location of a school.

He waited in the area for about one hour before noticing that 13 primary school students aged five and six were lining up as they prepared to be taken to an after-school creche.

Bouchaker stood at a bus stop in front of the children for one minute and 40 seconds until the only other adult nearby was Leanne Flynn. When Flynn crouched down to zip up the coat of one of the children, Bouchaker removed the knife from a rucksack strapped to his chest.

He moved quickly towards one little girl and stabbed her in the chest, causing a perforation to the right ventricle of her heart. Flynn dragged Bouchaker away but suffered a stab wound to her back as she did so. Bouchaker then continued his attack on the children until passersby intervened and knocked or dragged him to the ground.

The little girl suffered brain damage due to blood loss and will require lifelong care. Another girl had an 8cm gash to the top of her head and lost a fragment of skull due to a wound to the back of her head. The other children suffered what were described as superficial wounds.

Flynn required surgery to remove her spleen and to repair her diaphragm. She remained in hospital for one month.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt will set a date for a sentencing hearing this afternoon.

Lawyers for Riad Bouchaker had argued during his trial that the judge should direct a not guilty verdict on two of the attempted murder charges against him.

Trial judge, Mr Justice Tony Hunt, rejected the application, insisting there was evidence that could permit the jury to come to a safe guilty verdict.

Bouchaker's defence did not ask for an acquittal in relation to the girl who suffered the most serious injuries. However, they argued that there was an absence of identified facts in relation to the other girl, who suffered a laceration to her scalp, and the boy who suffered a superficial laceration to his neck.

They suggested there was no evidence that the boy's injury had been caused by Bouchaker or that he intended to kill either child.

Mr Justice Hunt said the jury was entitled to take a broader view of the circumstances. He said there was a construction of the evidence that would allow the jury to come to the view that Bouchaker had the intention to kill rather than to do anything else. A jury could find, he said, that a large man using a knife in any manner towards the head, neck or torso of a small child has an intention to kill.

He said they would be entitled to consider the persistence, violence and ferocity of Bouchaker's actions in confined circumstances in the relatively short period before others intervened.

He said the jury was also entitled to draw inferences from the fact that Bouchaker waited until the last pedestrian had left the area and Flynn was momentarily distracted while zipping up a child's coat before moving towards the children.

The judge also found that the jury could reasonably conclude that the superficial laceration to the boy's neck was caused by Bouchaker and not by some unknown event. The judge quoted case law which states that a charge should only be withdrawn from a jury if a guilty verdict would result in a miscarriage of justice.

However, the judge did agree to introduce alternative verdicts on the attempted murder charges. There is, he said, a high bar to proving attempted murder. If the jury was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of any of the attempted murder charges, he said he did not want them left in a position where they had no option but to acquit.

He therefore gave the jury the option of returning a verdict of not guilty of attempted murder, but guilty of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm in relation to the girl who suffered the stab wound to the heart. On the other two attempted murder charges, he offered the jury the alternative verdict of guilty of assault causing harm.

'Blandly Cheerful'

In December last year, Bouchaker's lawyers argued before the Central Criminal Court that he was suffering from a mental disorder and was unfit to stand trial.

During the hearing, a defence consultant forensic psychiatrist told the court that she interviewed Bouchaker on five occasions over the past two years with the aid of an Arabic interpreter.

During the interviews, she said Bouchaker was "smiling and calm" and that it seemed to her that he "didn't have the capacity to understand the serious nature of the charges or the matters before the court."

She described Bouchaker as "blandly cheerful", with "inappropriate jocularity unwarranted by the circumstances."

The witness concluded that Bouchaker was unable to enter a plea and lacked the capacity to object to jurors, to give evidence, follow evidence or to be cross-examined.

However in March this year, Mr Justice Hunt found that Bouchaker was fit to stand trial.

He said that despite Bouchaker's cognitive limitations, he can be accommodated and is capable of mounting a defence and understanding the nature of the charges against him.