A 52-yr-old man has been convicted of attempting to murder three children in an attack at Parnell Square in Dublin almost three years ago.
Riad Bouchaker, who has no fixed address, was also found guilty of stabbing a childcare worker named Leanne Flynn as she tried to shield the children, as well as assaulting two other children and a teenager who stepped in to seize the knife.
The court heard that the five-year-old girl who suffered the most serious injuries was left with a severe, permanent brain injury after being stabbed in the heart.
Following more than four hours of deliberations, the jury convicted him on all eight charges after a three-week trial.
Bouchaker, an Algerian-born Irish citizen who had lived in Ireland for 25 years, had recently been refused a social welfare payment. On the morning of 23 November 2023, he met his brother, who explained the rejection letter to him. CCTV footage captured him tearing up a piece of paper and discarding it.
He then returned to his hostel, collected his belongings—including a new 36-centimetre kitchen carving knife—left most of his possessions at a mosque on Talbot Street, and headed toward the Parnell Square area carrying a backpack and the knife.
A woman who encountered him along the way reported that he was speaking aggressively about Irish people. CCTV later showed him in a laneway behind Parnell Square, where he stopped a passerby to ask for directions to the school.
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