Sister of Stardust victim tells jury of moment she jumped on man stabbing children

Eoin Reynolds

A woman whose brother was a victim of the Stardust nightclub fire has told the Central Criminal Court how she was taking a break from an inquest into his death when she confronted a man stabbing children in Dublin city centre.

Siobhan Kearney on Tuesday told a trial jury that she 'jumped' on the defendant Riad Bouchaker (52) and tried to get him to the ground.

She said the knife he was wielding landed at her feet and she kicked it away while things went 'really crazy', with people hitting Bouchaker.

Kearney described how she then locked hands with another woman to protect Bouchaker from further blows. She said she started screaming 'we're not savages' as people tried to get at the accused.

The trial also heard on Tuesday from an 'extraordinarily brave' man, who described how he ran towards Bouchaker and gave him a 'dig in the jaw' as the defendant was waving a knife and appeared to be in a position to kill or seriously injure a group of children.

Warren Donoghue said he 'had to put him down' because of what Bouchaker was doing. When Bouchaker fell to the ground, Donoghue said he kicked him to 'make sure he didn't get back up'.

Bouchaker's trial has heard that he was punched, struck with a motorbike helmet and a bicycle lock before falling to the ground where a number of people kicked him after he inflicted knife wounds on children and a creche worker in Dublin city centre.

The accused, 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 an adult male 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.

Donoghue told prosecution counsel Karl Finnegan that he was walking with his family towards Parnell Square East when he noticed a commotion.

He initially thought it was an argument between a man and a woman but as he ran towards it, he saw a man with a knife in his right hand. The man was close to a group of children and was moving the knife in a downward motion, he said.

He said he 'hit him a dig in the jaw' with his right hand clenched into a fist. 'He had to be put down, because of what he was doing,' Donoghue said.

Other people also got involved, he said, and the situation turned to 'chaos'.

During cross-examination, Bouchaker's defence counsel told the witness that he had been 'extraordinarily brave' and did 'exactly the right thing' when he boxed Bouchaker and kicked him to make sure he stayed down.

The witness agreed that Bouchaker was 'waving or stabbing with' the knife and appeared to be in a position to kill or seriously injure the children.

Donoghue's mother-in-law, Bernie Power, said she was talking to her granddaughter when she heard screaming from across the road on Parnell Square.

She heard her granddaughter shout, "he's stabbing the kids, he's stabbing the kids' and when she looked, she saw a man with a little girl in his left arm and a knife in his right hand.

Her attention went to her grandchildren, she said, and the next thing she noticed was that somebody had taken the knife and 'flung it' into the road. Another person picked it up and threw it over a railing into the Garden of Remembrance, she said.

Siobhan Kearney said she had been attending an inquest into deaths at the Stardust nightclub that was taking place on the grounds of the Rotunda Hospital. Her brother, Liam, she said, died from injuries sustained in the fire.

The inquest was on its lunch break, and Kearney was on Parnell Square smoking a cigarette when she heard a scream.

She said she looked across the road and saw a man with a knife stabbing children. She said she went directly across, screaming, 'he's stabbing the f**king kids' and shouting at people to get the children away.

She said she saw the man with a knife in his right hand stabbing two children before moving them out of the way and 'lunging' at a third child.

Kearney, who is a chef, added: 'I knew what the blade was like and the damage that knife could do to anybody, let alone a little kiddy.'

By the time she reached Bouchaker, she said a scuffle had begun and she 'jumped on' him and tried to get him to the ground. The knife, she said, landed at her feet and she kicked it away while things went 'really crazy' with people hitting Bouchaker.

She asked a young man to take the knife across the road and locked hands with another woman to protect Bouchaker from further blows.

She said she started screaming, 'we're not savages' as people tried to get at the accused.

The accused was 'knocked out' by that time, she said, and wasn't going to do any more damage.

During cross-examination, Bouchaker's defence counsel suggested that if someone drove the knife found at the scene into a small child, they would 'almost certainly kill them'.

Kearney said she saw Bouchaker stabbing two of the kids but that he did 'most damage' to the third one. She said she saw him stabbing towards the children's shoulder, neck or head areas.

Eileen O'Sullivan told Finnegan that she was walking along the opposite side of the street when she heard a lady screaming. She said she saw a man struggling with a lady who seemed to be trying to stop him from doing something.

She said the man threw the lady off and she noticed he had a knife in his hand. He went towards one child who was wearing a backpack and he 'swivelled the child around' and began trying to stab him in the chest, she said.

She added: 'There was a lot of screaming, a lot of people trying to stop him, but he was hell-bent on getting as many children as he could.'

She saw a group of men trying to intervene, but they were 'having a great job of doing that' because the man with the knife was strong and he was fighting back.

When the man with the knife was brought to the ground, she said she saw a cyclist pull up and take the knife from the ground before walking towards where she was standing.

She said: 'I thought he was making for us, so we started to run. But he wasn't making for us, he was throwing the knife into the green area over the railing.'

Michael Healy told Finnegan that he was with O'Sullivan and, after he heard the scream, he saw a man knocking a woman to the ground. He said he saw the assailant with a knife raised and he looked like he wanted to stab 'one or all of the children'.

He said the children were wearing backpacks and the man appeared to be trying to manoeuvre them so he could stab them in the front. When he grabbed a child, he said they would struggle, and he would grab another one using his left hand.

He said: 'I saw one or two struggle to get away from him and I saw him certainly hurting two, maybe three children.'

He saw a man jumping off a scooter and striking Bouchaker on the head with his helmet before a couple of other people joined in.

Oisin Murphy told Finnegan that he was cycling up Parnell Square East toward Dorset St when he noticed a commotion on the other side of the road.

He said he saw a man with a knife grabbing a child and striking multiple times before two men grappled with Bouchaker, trying to get the knife out of his hand.

Murphy said he approached and struck Bouchaker on the head with his bicycle lock before more people jumped in and brought the accused to the ground. He recalled two ladies forming a circle around Bouchaker because 'others had come in to try to hurt him'.

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