A man has denied charges of attempting to murder three children on Dublin’s Parnell Square in late 2023.
Riad Bouchaker also pleaded not guilty to other charges linked to the same incident, including producing an article capable of inflicting serious injury, a 36cm kitchen knife.
When arraigned at the Central Criminal Court on Monday, Bouchaker (52), a native of Algeria of no fixed abode, pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of two girls and one boy at Parnell Square East on November 23rd, 2023.
He also denied assault causing harm to two other children and a passerby who had intervened to assist. He further denied a charge of assault causing serious harm to a care worker.
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He pleaded not guilty to one count alleging that he, while committing attempted murder in the course of a dispute, had produced, in a manner likely unlawfully to intimidate another person an article capable of inflicting serious injury, a 36cm kitchen knife.
After the arraignment, a jury of nine men and three women were empanelled to hear the case.
The case was adjourned to Wednesday when the trial will open before Judge Tony Hunt and the jury.
Prior to the jury being sworn in on Monday afternoon, Hunt told the panel the trial would last about five weeks. He said no person should serve on the jury if they had any knowledge of the events at issue or felt they could not abide by their oath to deliver a true verdict in accordance with the evidence.
Hunt told the jury the trial relates to events alleged to have taken place on November 23rd, 2023, at Parnell Square.
He said it may be that the aftermath of the events, which had “nothing to do” with this trial, was subject to a lot of publicity to which some or all of the panel may have been exposed.
The panel had to ask themselves the “searching question” whether anything they had seen or heard prevented them being in any way open minded or objective because Bouchaker has the same fundamental right as any accused to a fair trial and a true verdict in accordance with the evidence, he said.
Bouchaker had, before November 2023, suffered from a benign tumour that required a craniotomy, a head operation in November 2021, he said.
In the course of intervention by members of the public on November 23rd, 2023, Bouchaker suffered a head injury which required hospitalisation in the immediate aftermath of the incident and underwent treatment, he said. Some time after the incident, he was arrested.
Because of the head injury and his existing injury, Bouchaker has an acquired brain injury which affects his ability to sustain attention and concentration and that is one of the reasons the trial is fixed for five weeks, the judge said
There is no disagreement in relation to his injuries and he will get accommodations during the trial, an interpreter and intermediary, he said. That would require the jury to have “more than ordinary patience” and the court sessions may be shorter than in other trials, the judge said.
Bouchaker had been found by the judge prior to the trial to be fit to stand trial, Hunt said. That was a matter for the judge, not the jury, but part of the finding of fitness included that he should be given accommodations.
There is no suggestion Bouchaker was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the incident such as would give rise to special mental health defences, the judge added.
The verdicts available are guilty, or not guilty, and the accommodations were made to reflect the reality of the situation. The trial will be a “lengthy and painstaking process”, he said.
