parnell square attack
Having heard evidence and pleas in mitigation today, Mr Justice Tony Hunt adjourned sentencing until 16 November.
A LIFE SENTENCE for Riad Bouchaker, who tried to murder three children on Parnell Square in a knife attack, would not be appropriate because of his “intellectual disabilities”, his lawyers have argued before the Central Criminal Court.
The mother of a child who suffered a gash to her head after being stabbed in the attack three years ago has described Bouchaker as “the monster” who haunts her daughter’s nightmares.
Parents of some of the children injured during the attack have delivered victim impact statements outlining the ongoing psychological struggles they endure. The mother of a girl who suffered severe brain injury due to blood loss after Bouchaker stabbed her in the heart, wrote that her daughter will need care for the rest of her life.
She said her daughter went from being a five-year-old who could dress herself, run, jump, climb, play, eat and make decisions to being unable to talk, walk or swallow more than a tiny piece of food. Her daughter takes medication four times a day and suffers muscle spasms and chronic pain and needs a tablet to sleep. She said she and her husband worry about who will look after their daughter when they are gone.
The mother of the girl who suffered the scalp wound said she watched CCTV footage of the attack and saw the children smiling, laughing and joking moments before Bouchaker launched his attack. She told the court: “Their innocence is magical to look at. This monster stole that innocence from them. That is what he is, the monster that haunts her nightmares.”
Leanne Flynn, a crèche worker who suffered a stab wound in her back when she tried to pull Bouchaker away from the children, said she hates being called a hero. She said she should not have had to do what she did and, turning to look at Bouchaker, she said: “I hope whatever god you believe in doesn’t forgive you, because harming innocent children is simply unforgivable.”
Bouchaker (52), of no fixed address, had denied the attempted murder of two girls and one boy, and assault causing serious harm to Ms Flynn, at Parnell Square East in Dublin City on 23 November 2023.
He also denied assaulting two other children and then-teenager Alan Loren-Guille and producing a knife in a manner likely to intimidate. A jury convicted him of all charges following a three-week trial that ended in July of this year.
Having heard evidence and pleas in mitigation today, Mr Justice Tony Hunt adjourned sentencing until 16 November.
At today’s hearing, Garda Shimna Ní Mháirtin read a statement which had been written by the first girl’s mother. She said that her child had died during the 40 minutes between the stabbing and when surgeons at Temple St Children’s Hospital closed the wound to her heart. A piece of their family died also, she said.
Her daughter had a “great range of vocabulary”, was passionate about dancing, singing and chatting and had been sick only twice in her life. Now, she cannot walk or talk and is fed through a gastric tube. She has to be lifted to the toilet and wears a nappy all the time. The mother stopped working so she could be with her daughter “in case she goes into crisis”, causing the family’s income to drop by half.
The mother of the second girl who Bouchaker tried to murder wrote that she dropped her child at the crèche that morning, kissed her goodbye and told her to have a good day. “I never imagined what was going to happen,” she said.
The call she received that afternoon still haunts her and she remembers running to the school and feeling able to breathe again only when she saw her child, who had suffered a cut to the back of her skull that required stitches. She has been left with a scar on the back of her head and a patch where the hair doesn’t grow.
In the months and years since, she has suffered regular nightmares. She freezes if someone approaches too quickly on a public street and can’t bear to hear words like hospital or ambulance. She has buried what happened inside and her mother worries that some day, the trauma will erupt. “Nobody knows how deep this trauma goes,” she said. “This is inside her now for the rest of her life.”
She said she is blessed that her child survived and is grateful every day that Leanne Flynn intervened. “It could have been a lot worse if she hadn’t done what she did,” she said. She said no parent should have to worry that when they say goodbye to their child, it might be the last time they see them. She said she should not have had to write a victim impact statement and there is no excuse for the way that Bouchaker picked out children and targeted them for the most amount of damage.
One of the girls suffered a bump to her head, a nick behind her ear and her coat and hair were cut when Bouchaker slashed with the knife while children ran in terror.
Her mother said the girl remembers going to ground and hearing crying and screaming. She was able to give a detailed and accurate picture of Bouchaker, including his facial features, the colour of his clothes and even his shoes, which she saw as she lay on the ground. Her mother hopes that memory will fade with time.
She would later say that Bouchaker “looked like a real man, but he was actually a bad man.” In the manner of a typical six-year-old, she also described that day as “more worser than any bad days”.
The mother said she is grateful that Leanne Flynn protected the children as if they were her own and that strangers intervened to knock Bouchaker to the ground. She said her daughter has attended therapy and needs to learn how to regulate her feelings: she struggles when seeing ambulances, hearing loud noises or when confronted by crowds or aggressive behaviour.
Leanne Flynn
Leanne Flynn spent one month in intensive care following life-saving surgery to have her punctured spleen removed. She was left with a compromised immune system and damage to her stomach muscles that prevent her from picking up her child. When she first returned home, she could barely walk or stand on her own, so her partner became her carer.
She spent months in and out of hospital and attending her GP and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. She has been unable to return to work and takes tablets to help digest food. Ms Flynn said she finds the changes in her life and the loss of independence frustrating. She worries about returning to working in a crèche with her compromised immune system and wonders if she would be able to face going to Parnell Square again.
She said she hates the word ‘hero’ and hates that her name will forever be tied to Riad Bouchaker.
Mitigation
Bouchaker’s defence barrister asked the court to take into consideration that at the time of the offence, his client suffered from mild intellectual difficulties having previously undergone an operation to remove a benign brain tumour. Counsel said his disability is relevant “to some degree” to Bouchaker’s culpability for the offence.
Counsel further asked that the court consider Bouchaker’s more recent diagnosis of moderate dementia as a result of blows to the head inflicted by members of the public at Parnell Square who intervened to prevent him injuring more children.
Counsel said Bouchaker’s disability will make his time in prison more difficult. While the attempted murder charges carry a possible life sentence, counsel said that would not be appropriate or proportionate given Bouchaker’s intellectual disabilities. He also reminded the court that the Irish Constitution does not provide for preventative detention, whereby life sentences are sometimes imposed in other jurisdictions to protect the public from an offender.
The court previously heard that Bouchaker has lived in Ireland for about 25 years and is an Irish citizen. He has no previous convictions.
His trial earlier this year heard that Bouchaker was upset after receiving a letter that he believed was a refusal of 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 crèche.
Bouchaker stood at a bus stop in front of the children for one minute and 45 seconds until the only other adult nearby was Leanne Flynn.
When Ms Flynn crouched down to zip up the coat of one of the children, Bouchaker removed the knife from a rucksack strapped to his chest and moved quickly towards one little girl, stabbing her in the chest and causing a perforation to the right ventricle of her heart.
Ms 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.
French national Alan Loren-Guille, who was aged 17 years at the time and had moved to Ireland one month earlier, took the knife from Bouchaker’s hand. Mr Loren-Guille suffered a scratch to his finger and a nick to his face and was the subject of the final charge of assault causing harm.
More than a dozen witnesses who came across the scene of the attack gave evidence at Bouchaker’s trial.
In his garda interviews, Bouchaker told detectives that if the department of social welfare had helped him, “this wouldn’t have happened”.
Bouchaker told gardaí that he is an Irish national and that the department’s decision to refuse him social welfare “made me go into blackout”. He said it felt like “this country is telling me to leave”, that he was not in his right mind at the time and was in need of help.
He denied that he went for the smallest children he could find during his attacks.