Brave care worker who protected children should be recognised – McDonald

By Gráinne Ní Aodha and Jonathan McCambridge, PA

The childcare worker who bravely intervened to protect young children who were being attacked on Parnell Square East three years ago should be recognised by the State, Mary Lou McDonald has said.

The Sinn Féin leader was speaking in Belfast on Thursday after Riad Bouchaker, 52, of no fixed abode, was found guilty of the attempted murder of a five-year-old girl who was stabbed in the heart, and the attempted murders of a five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl.

A riot broke out in the capital hours after the attack on Parnell Square East on November 23rd 2023, after crowds gathered near the crime scene.

Vehicles and a Luas tram were set on fire and shops were looted in disorder that made international headlines.

Bouchaker, an Algerian national who is an Irish citizen, was also found guilty of assault causing harm to another boy and girl, aged five and six respectively, as well as to a French teenager who intervened as he passed by, and the production of the 36cm kitchen knife.

He had denied all eight charges.

The bravery of Flynn to intervene to protect the children was mentioned several times during the three-week trial.

Flynn received a major stab wound to her lower back, which damaged her spleen, lungs, diaphragm and stomach.

A surgeon gave evidence during the trial that Flynn received a “significant” injury to her spleen which meant it had to be removed as a “lifesaving measure”.

Her diaphragm was injured, leading her stomach to go into her chest area and one of her lungs collapsed.

She had to be placed into an induced coma and underwent two emergency surgeries, and has not been able to return to work.

Asked by the Press Association if Flynn should be recognised, McDonald said: “Leanne is an absolute hero.

“I know her quite well. I know her family.

“She’s a mother of two young children herself, and there is absolutely no doubt Leanne saved lives and I think it has only been in the course of the court case that the public at large have realised just how heroic this young woman was.

“She suffered very, very serious injuries herself.

“She spent a very considerable amount of time in hospital. She is now back up and at it.

“She’s an incredible young woman. I salute her bravery.

“She is an absolute hero, and yes, I think there ought to be a full recognition of Leanne by the state, by the city of Dublin, because I know the school, the parents, all of us recognise just how brave she has been.”

McDonald, who was in Dublin City on the scene not long after it occurred, said she would “never forget the level of panic and distress”.

She commended the “fortitude”, “grace”, and “resilience” of the parents and teaching staff of the children during what she said had been “an absolutely horrific, horrific experience of trauma for very, very young children”.

She said that the life of one girl, who was stabbed in the heart and now has a lifelong disability, has been “catastrophically changed”.

The girl, now aged seven, needs 24-hour care after her brain was deprived of oxygen for 40 minutes following the attack.

She is non-verbal and can only communicate by blinking, uses a wheelchair and has to be fed through a tube in her stomach as she cannot swallow safely by herself.

The girl’s mother said she has no memory of the attack and that explaining what had happened to her was “probably one of the hardest things that I had to do”.

“There is no real justice for that child,” McDonald said.

“The school community is a real community of solidarity and love, and that child victim is very, very much loved by her peers, by the staff, and by the whole community, and I hope, and I know the family really feel that solidarity, and the other children as well.”