A judge will rule next month whether a man charged with attempting to murder three children on Parnell Square in Dublin in late 2023 is fit to stand trial at the Central Criminal Court.
The application raised “difficult” issues requiring time for consideration, High Court judge Tony Hunt said on Wednesday when listing his ruling for March 27th next.
Riad Bouchaker (52), a native of Algeria of no fixed abode, is charged with the attempted murder of two girls and one boy, and with assault causing serious harm to a care worker.
He is also charged with three counts of assault causing harm to two other young children and a passerby, who had intervened to assist, and one count of the production of a knife.
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The offences are alleged to have occurred during an incident at Parnell Square East on the afternoon of November 23rd, 2023.
Lawyers for the defence have applied to Hunt to have Bouchaker held unfit to stand trial. Lawyers for the Director of Public Prosecutions opposed that application.
The court was previously told the parties agreed no one is arguing for the defence of not guilty by reason of insanity.
When the application was briefly mentioned on Tuesday, the judge said, if there was any change in that position, he should be notified before he gives his ruling on fitness to plead.
Previously, a consultant forensic psychiatrist called as an expert witness by the defence said Bouchaker has a complex medical history, had surgery on his brain for a benign tumour in 2021 and suffered a brain injury “in the course of members of the public intervening” on the day of the alleged offences.
His only possible destination in the medium to long term would be at the Central Mental Hospital and, if admitted there, he would be treated by a multidisciplinary team. If found unfit to stand trial, he would be reviewed on a six-month basis by the mental health criminal law review board, she said.
She said Bouchaker has a mental disorder – moderate dementia – and, because of that, is unfit to plead, to weigh evidence and his choices in a serious criminal case, and to stand trial.
She agreed with the judge the discussion about fitness to plead would not be necessary were it not for a significant head injury suffered by Bouchaker in the immediate aftermath of the incident at Parnell Square East.
Her view was that, at the time of the alleged offences, he had a mild cognitive impairment but now has moderate dementia.
He is unable to weigh up choices required during a criminal process and his level of dysfunction would be beyond what any intermediary or support person appointed to assist him could do, she said.
A consultant forensic psychiatrist called as an expert witness for the prosecution accepted Bouchaker has a serious brain injury but believed he is fit to plead, weigh his choices and stand trial. This might require some accommodations, including a trained interpreter and simplified questions, he said.
Bouchaker, he said, has an acquired brain injury secondary to neurosurgery in 2021; suffered a head injury in the aftermath of the alleged offences in 2023, and has a neurocognitive disorder.
Following the medical evidence, the judge said he would watch videos of Bouchaker’s Garda interviews, which formed part of the bases for the psychiatrists’ findings.
The court has made orders preventing media identification of the medical witnesses or the legal representatives for Bouchaker.
