Devastated parents tell court how their children's lives were destroyed in knife attack by Algerian that sparked Irish riots - with girl, eight, now only able to 'talk' by blinking

The life of a little girl who was stabbed in Dublin by Riad Bouchaker, and the lives of her family, have become 'unrecognisable', the Central Criminal Court heard on Monday.

The girl, who was five when Bouchaker stabbed her on Parnell Square, has a lifelong, life-limiting severe disability after her brain was deprived of oxygen for 40 minutes following the attack, the court heard.

At Bouchaker's sentencing hearing on Monday, the court heard how the now eight-year-old 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.

In a victim impact statement, read by Detective Garda Shimna Ní Mháirtín, her mother wrote: 'In a way she died during those 40 minutes. A piece of myself and my husband and family also died that day.'

On July 1, a Central Criminal Court jury unanimously convicted Bouchaker of attempting to murder three children on November 23, 2023, during a knife attack that sparked rioting and looting across Dublin city.

The 52-year-old was convicted at the city's Central Criminal Court of the attempted murder of the 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.

The court also heard a statement from the boy's mother, who said he has been traumatised since the incident.

Turning her chair to face Bouchaker, she said: 'In your interviews with An Garda Síochána, you said you were so glad the children were all ok.

'I've never heard such bulls*** in all my life. You grabbed him by the jumper, and you plunged a knife towards his chest.'

'You traumatised and terrorised 13 children for your own sick purposes,' she added.

'I simply don't know the extent to which he'll be victimised by what you did. How will he process this when he's 10? How will he process this when he's 15? I simply don't know.'

The boy's mother addressed her statement to Bouchaker, who looked to the ground while she spoke.

She called him 'one cowardly man' as she recounted her son, at a birthday party, asking: 'Mama is a bad man going to come to this party and try to kill us all?'

'I cannot fathom this level of evil,' she said.

'You are an extremely dangerous man, and I have no doubt that given the chance you would do this all over again.'

The court also heard a written statement from the mother of the six-year-old girl.

The girl suffered a 10cm cut so deep to the back of her head that it chipped her skull.

Her mother described a scar that runs down the back of her head as a result of the injuries inflicted upon her by Bouchaker.

'We are blessed that her wound healed and her scar is at the back of her head, so she doesn't see it in the mirror every day,' she said.

The now nine-year-old's mother said her daughter freezes in the streets after years of 'nightmares and trauma'.

'When I dropped her off… I kissed her goodbye telling her to have a good day,' she said.

'I never imagined what was going to happen and how our lives were going to change. It haunts me to this day.'

She said she remembers the innocence of her child in the car on the day of the incident.

'This monster stole that innocence from them,' she said.

'I say monster because that's what he is. The monster that haunts her nightmares.'

Bouchaker was also convicted in July of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to the children's care worker, Leanne Flynn, whom he stabbed in the left side of her body as she bravely intervened to protect her young charges.

In their statements to the court, parents of the children involved thanked Ms Flynn for her bravery, which they said saved their children's lives.

Delivering her own statement to the court, Ms Flynn described how her life has been 'changed drastically'.

She was left with a severed diaphragm, collapsed lungs and had to have her spleen removed.

She received a blood transfusion and had to be resuscitated on the operating table.

After spending a month in hospital and 18 months recovering, she said that her injuries mean she can no longer lift her children and she is unsure if she will ever be able to go back to work.

'Simply lifting my finger felt like I was being hit by a train,' she said.

Ms Flynn outlined the psychological impact the incident has had on her family. She said she has been diagnosed with PTSD, and her son has 'severe separation anxiety'.

Her partner, she said, also suffers after having to identify her 'lifeless body in A&E'.

She said it was months before she felt safe to leave her house and when she did, her 'head was constantly on a swivel'.

Speaking in court, she said: 'I hope whatever god you believe in, Riad, he doesn't forgive you because harming children is unforgivable.'

Bouchaker was also found guilty in July 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.

The victim impact statements came after prosecuting barrister Karl Finnegan SC ran evidence, already heard by the court, by Detective Sergeant Padraig Cleary for confirmation.

The court was shown footage, around two minutes of CCTV, showing children waiting on Parnell Square before a man, now known to be Bouchaker, attacked them.

The court heard about the movements of Bouchaker before he carried out the attack, and the witness statements of Gardaí and medical responders who attended the scene.

Bouchaker's barrister, who the judge ordered cannot be named due to safety concerns, then reiterated elements of evidence for his client.

The court previously heard from Bouchaker's defence team that his cognitive function, memory, concentration, communication and decision-making was affected as a result of cognitive impairment.

This was made worse, the court heard, when he hit his head during the incident.

Detective Cleary confirmed that Bouchaker admitted to being the person who engaged with the children from the beginning of interviews, before being presented with CCTV or any other evidence that showed it was him.

Later he willingly identified himself on CCTV.

Bouchaker, he said, repeated on a number of occasions during interviews that he was relieved no one died and that he was a sick man.

Mr Cleary said he also made repeated references to 'banal' health concerns like his eyesight and a shoulder injury.

'He brought it back to himself every time,' Mr Cleary said.

Mr Cleary said that Bouchaker, an Algerian national and Irish citizen who has lived in Ireland for 25 years, had no previous convictions, had never worked since his arrival in Ireland and had some family relationships, 'but they were strained'.

'I think very much he was a loner,' he said.

The judge, Mr Justice Tony Hunt, set November 16 as the date for Bouchaker's sentencing verdict, beginning at 10.30am.

'Obviously this is a complicated matter, so I will not be passing a sentence today,' he said.