Hospital staff needed 'reassurance' while treating Riad Bouchaker, court hears

Eoin Reynolds

A Garda presence was needed when Riad Bouchaker was taken to hospital because staff knew that he was alleged to have been involved in the stabbing of a child and they were nervous, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

A 24cm carving knife that was recovered from the scene of the stabbing was also shown to the jury on Friday.

Det Sgt Padraig Cleary on Friday told prosecutor Karl Finnegan that gardaí attended the Mater Hospital during a 28-day period following the alleged Parnell Square knife attacks that left one child with a severe brain injury due to blood loss.

The detective said officers were there partly to gather Bouchaker's belongings or evidence samples but also as "reassurance for staff at the hospital".

He added: "They knew the incident he was alleged to have been involved in and people were nervous. So we retained a garda presence at the hospital for that purpose."

Det Sgt Cleary said he later learned that the accused had post-traumatic amnesia which required a 28-day assessment.

On December 19th, which was 27 days after the accused's hospitalisation, Det Sgt Cleary said he had a meeting with a consultant psychiatrist who told him that the assessment would be carried out the following day.

At 6:45am on December 20th, Det Sgt Cleary and other gardaí attended St Peter's Ward in the Mater Hospital with a French Arabic translator.

The consultant carried out the assessment and informed gardaí that Bouchaker was being discharged.

Det Sgt Cleary went to Bouchaker's room and, with the help of the translator, explained to him that he was arresting him for attempted murder and was going to take him to Mountjoy Garda Station.

They arrived at Mountjoy at 7:15am, the witness said, where MrBouchaker was introduced to the jailer.

Det Sgt Cleary also told Finnegan that on the day of the alleged stabbings, he and other gardai were able to watch CCTV footage of the incident within 30 minutes of it happening.

He said he noticed in the footage that the suspect had removed a backpack moments before the attack and left it at a bus stop. He sent gardaí to photograph the backpack and other items, including a knife, that were found nearby.

Det Sgt Cleary said he also noted that two children who Bouchaker is alleged to have attempted to murder were being treated inside a nearby building.

He said he made arrangements for those children who had not been injured to meet their parents in a laneway to the back of the building.

Det Gda Raymond Lee told Finnegan that inside the rucksack that was discarded at the bus stop, gardai found a cover for a 24 cm carving knife.

Det Gda Lee showed the jury a jacket with red stains on the inside of the hood that gardai believe was worn by a girl who is alleged to have been assaulted by Bouchaker.

He also showed the jury strands of hair said to have been cut from the head of another alleged victim.

The trial has previously heard that a member of the public removed the knife from the scene and put it over a railing into the Garden of Remembrance, across the street from where the incident had happened.

Det Gda Ian Walsh told Finnegan that after the knife had been photographed, he placed it in a protective tube. Det Gda Walsh on Friday removed the knife from the tube and showed it to the jury.

Dr Michael Boyle earlier told prosecuting counsel Carol Doherty that he came upon the scene after hearing about the stabbing, which happened close to the Rotunda Hospital where he works as head of the neonatal department.

He found lots of people on the street and his own neonatal transport team attending to the girl after they had been flagged down.

The child, he said, looked grey and paramedics had placed drains in her chest and were doing CPR to try to massage the heart. He said Dr Peter Harper, a paediatric anaesthetist from Temple St Hospital, 'fortuitously' happened upon the scene and helped to put a breathing tube into the girl's airways.

When paramedics paused their chest compressions, Dr Boyle said he checked for a pulse at the girl's femoral artery, but found nothing.

Dr Lisa Corley from the Rotunda had ordered blood to be sent immediately and the decision was taken to carry out a transfusion in the ambulance. Dr Boyle said they "went against protocols and just ran with things" because they wanted to act as quickly as possible.

They decided to take the girl to the nearest hospital at Temple St, even though they knew there was no cardiothoracic surgeon there. "She didn't have time to go anywhere else," he said.

Dr Boyle said he needed to bypass the emergency department because that would have delayed her getting to the operating theatre.

While the ambulance transported the little girl, Dr Boyle ran to Temple St and told the emergency staff that the patient was not to come to them. He then ran to the operating theatre to make space and asked a colleague to call the Mater Hospital to get them to send a heart surgeon immediately.

Doherty asked what Dr Boyle thought when he assessed the girl at the scene and couldn't find a pulse at her femoral artery.

"I thought she was dead," he said. The trial has previously heard that the little girl spent one month in the intensive care unit. She now uses a wheelchair, is non-verbal and communicates only by blinking yes or no. She is fed through a tube and requires medication to help her sleep.

Bouchaker, of no fixed address, is on trial at the Central Criminal Court charged with the attempted murder of two girls and one boy, and assault causing serious harm to creche worker Leanne Flynn, at Parnell Square East in Dublin City on November 23rd, 2023.

He is further charged with assaulting two other children and a teenager and with producing a knife in a manner likely to intimidate.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and his trial is expected to last up to five weeks.

Det Gda Gerard Dunne told Finnegan that he was requested to go in an ambulance with creche worker Leanne Flynn, who had a visible injury to her right side and was in a lot of pain. She was unable to speak, he said, and she was "just shouting and screaming in physical pain".

Corinne Allen told Doherty that she was coming from a building onto Parnell Square East when she saw Flynn and Bouchaker struggling.

She said Bouchaker was pulling on Flynn's left arm 'quite forcefully' and she was pulling back. She then saw a "really large knife" in his hand and saw him stabbing her 'a few times'.

She said Flynn must have fallen to the ground because Bouchaker then walked up to a group of children lined up against a railing. She said he put his free hand on one chid's shoulder and "gestured" with the knife towards the child.

The railing obstructed her view, she said, so she couldn't see. She turned around and went back inside the building.

Under cross-examination, Bouchaker's defence counsel asked Allen if she would be surprised to learn that Flynn only suffered one stab wound, not the "two or three" she said she saw.

She accepted it was possible that her memory had failed her, but added that certain aspects of what happened are "engrained on my brain forever and I will never forget it".

The trial continues before Justice Tony Hunt and a jury of nine men and three women.