A man has told the Central Criminal Court that he grabbed the knife from the hand of Riad Bouchaker after he had stabbed children in Parnell Square in November 2023.
Mr Bouchaker, aged 52 and of no fixed abode, has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of two girls and one boy and not guilty to assault causing serious harm to creche worker Leanne Flynn, at Parnell Square East in Dublin on 23 November 2023.
He has also denied assaulting two other children and an adult male and denied a charge of producing a knife in a manner likely to intimidate.
The man giving evidence, who was 17 at the time and who is from France, said after he grabbed the knife from Mr Bouchaker that he then threw the knife on the ground, and another man took it away.
He said he was on his way to work in a restaurant in the south of the city at the time.
The man said he heard a woman screaming as he was walking down Parnell Square and saw a man assaulting a woman with children nearby.
He said he crossed the road to "disarm the man" and he grabbed the knife from his hand. "It was very fast" he said.
He said he had to use force to remove the knife and scratched his finger and cheek in the process, but he wasn't bleeding and said his injuries were not serious.
He also said that when he was grabbing the knife, a man came and hit the attacker with a motorcycle helmet while another man took the knife and threw it on to a green area nearby.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt told the now 20-year-old man after he had given his evidence that he was very modest and very brave.
'I jumped off my bike, I tried to help'
Another man, Eder Arantes Dos Santos earlier told the court he was cycling home when he heard a woman screaming and saw she was trying to protect a child.
He said he saw a tall man stabbing a girl with a large black handled blade, three or four times into the chest. He thought the child was about five years old.
"I jumped off my bike, I tried to help," he said.
"I remember seeing the knife on the floor. I took the knife away to prevent other people getting hurt. I took the knife across the road where my bike was and threw it under the rails into a green area."
He then said he saw two women protecting the attacker saying "we're not savages", and the girl being given medical attention.
"I realised she was in a really bad way," he said.
"I stepped away because I knew I couldn't do any more. The situation was controlled."
He said he then became emotional and started crying before he rang his housemate who told him to tell gardaí what he saw.
Defence counsel put it to Mr Dos Santos that he told gardaí that day that a boy had been stabbed, but he replied that it was a stressful situation and accepted that he was wrong at the time when he told gardaí it was a boy he saw.
The first critical care technician to treat the girl at the scene, Conor Garvey, said when he arrived, the child was bleeding from her chest, had no pulse and wasn't breathing.
His ambulance had been diverted from transporting neo natal babies.
Paediatrician Lisa Corley, who was waiting for that ambulance then left the Rotunda to help at the scene and called ahead to Temple Street to alert them to what had happened and to be prepared.
She also testified there was a lot of misinformation that day with people saying there were other critically injured children, but she only found two others who were stable.
A passing consultant anaesthetist Peter Harper also stopped to help and accompanied the critically ill child to Temple Street where he continued to treat her.
Carlos Antonio Lopes dos Santos gave evidence in the trial of Riad Bouchaker (Photo: Collins)
Healthcare worker saw stabbing
A Brazilian healthcare worker who was studying English in Ireland told the court he saw a man stab three children on Parnell Square East.
In his evidence, Carlos Antonio Lopes Dos Santos said he saw the man whom the defence accepts was Mr Bouchaker hold the children before he stabbed them.
He testified that the third child was a girl and that "she really got my attention...because he dug the knife in very deeply between stomach and chest".
He said: "He wanted to do it as quickly as possible so that he could get many kids."
Mr Dos Santos said he called 999 when he saw what was happening.
He also said he saw another man hit Mr Bouchaker with a helmet and people gather around and kick him after he fell to the ground.
He said another man took the knife away and threw it on to a grass patch.
He said he was shocked and upset by what he had seen.
He also saw "the girl covered in blood" and "the paramedics trying to help her".
He rejected an assertion by the defence that he did not see any man "stick a knife into the belly or torso of a child".
The first garda on the scene that day said he handcuffed and searched Riad Bouchaker before he accompanied him to hospital.
Adam Kealy said he and his colleague Garda Burke arrived in a patrol car after a call came in saying a number o…
Read the full article at RTÉ News →
Ireland