Jury in Parnell Square attack trial views CCTV footage

The jury in the trial of a 52-year-old man accused of attempting to murder three children in Dublin in November 2023 has seen CCTV footage of the period before and during the incident.

Riad Bouchaker has pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder the two girls and a boy at Parnell Square in Dublin on 23 November 2023.

He has also denied assaulting crèche worker Leanne Flynn, two other children and a passerby who intervened.

He has further pleaded not guilty to possessing a knife.

It is the prosecution's case that Mr Bouchaker intended to kill the three children, that he selected young children to attack and targeted their heads and upper bodies with the knife.

Garda John Heatherton of Mountjoy Garda station gave evidence of collecting CCTV footage from a number of locations around Parnell Square, beginning at 2pm on 23 November 2023, almost immediately after the attacks took place.

The court heard gardaí obtained 49 pieces of CCTV and compiled an hour-long compilation of clips.

The footage came from 18 different locations, showing what the prosecution claims are Riad Bouchaker’s movements on the morning and afternoon in question, beginning just after 11am and ending just after half past one.

The first clip shows a man, who the prosecution says is Mr Bouchaker, leaving the De Paul Hostel on Little Britain Street in the city centre at 11.06am.

The man has glasses on and is wearing a black cap, black jacket and jeans and is carrying a backpack.

The man continues to Dunnes Stores in the Ilac Centre where he sits with a number of men in a café for about two minutes.

The footage later shows the suspect as well as another man standing outside the entrance to lifts in the shopping centre, where they appear to be going through a number of documents.

A little later they go back into the centre and the man, alleged to be Riad Bouchaker, can be seen appearing to rip up some paper and discard it at a Christmas tree.

At 11.50am, the man goes back to the De Paul Hostel and comes out of his room at midday, carrying a backpack but also wheeling a suitcase-type bag.

The man heads to a premises at numbers 8-9 Talbot Street where he is seen walking in the front door at 12.17pm.

He goes upstairs and the jury were shown footage of him talking to another man and knocking on doors.

Prosecuting counsel Karl Finnegan said there appeared to be some discussion about the wheelie bag before the man hands over a lock and key to the bag.

The man is then seen at 12.27pm walking out of this building with his backpack, towards O’Connell Street.

The footage shows the man walking towards Parnell Square where he has some interaction with three men and then a little later, the jury heard, there seems to be interaction with two women.

At 12.36pm, the man is seen at Rutland Place, looking into the rear of an English language school which has its front entrance on Parnell Square.

The man goes into the back entrance of the school, before leaving again and is later seen standing in the back yard of the school, looking towards the back of a primary school, beside the language school.

The man is seen at 12.57pm walking on Parnell Square, walking in the front entrance of the language school before leaving again.

At almost 1pm, the CCTV footage shows a group of school children lining up outside the language school before walking down Parnell Square.

The man appears to be walking behind them, holding a backpack in front of him.

Just after half past one, the man can be seen walking towards the primary school, stopping at a bus stop just outside.

Footage from a Dublin bus shows the man standing at the bus stop, holding a bag to his front.

As the bus moves away, the man can be seen looking behind him before moving towards a group of children.

The final piece of footage shown to the jury shows the man standing at the bus stop for almost two minutes before moving towards the group of children, some of whom begin running away with adults helping them.

Earlier, the mother of one of the children injured in the attack described getting a phone call from a teacher saying her son had been hurt but that he was OK.

She went to Crumlin hospital and arrived before the ambulances.

When her son arrived, he was with a garda in the back of an ambulance and was looking at cartoons on the garda’s phone.

Doctors found a wound on his neck which was treated with paper stitches.

She agreed with defence lawyers that she had given a statement in which she said a doctor described the wound as a superficial injury and her son was discharged later that day.