Parnell Square attack: What the jury did not hear

Lawyers for Riad Bouchaker had argued during his trial that the judge should direct a not guilty verdict on two of the attempted murder charges against him.

Trial judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt rejected the application, insisting there was evidence that could permit the jury to come to a safe guilty verdict.

Bouchaker's defence did not ask for an acquittal in relation to the girl who suffered the most serious injuries.

However, they argued that there was an absence of identified facts in relation to the other girl, who suffered a laceration to her scalp, and the boy who suffered a superficial laceration to his neck.

They suggested there was no evidence that the boy's injury had been caused by Bouchaker or that he intended to kill either child.

Mr Justice Hunt said the jury was entitled to take a broader view of the circumstances.

He said there was a construction of the evidence that would allow the jury to come to the view that Bouchaker had the intention to kill rather than to do anything else.

A jury could find, he said, that a large man using a knife in any manner towards the head, neck or torso of a small child has an intention to kill.

He said they would be entitled to consider the persistence, violence and ferocity of Bouchaker's actions in confined circumstances in the relatively short period before others intervened.

He said the jury was also entitled to draw inferences from the fact that Bouchaker waited until the last pedestrian had left the area and Ms Flynn was momentarily distracted while zipping up a child's coat before moving towards the children.

The judge also found that the jury could reasonably conclude that the superficial laceration to the boy's neck was caused by Bouchaker and not by some unknown event.

The judge quoted case law which states that a charge should only be withdrawn from a jury if a guilty verdict would result in a miscarriage of justice.

However, the judge did agree to introduce alternative verdicts on the attempted murder charges.

There is, he said, a high bar to proving attempted murder.

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If the jury was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of any of the attempted murder charges, he said he did not want them left in a position where they had no option but to acquit.

He therefore gave the jury the option of returning a verdict of not guilty of attempted murder, but guilty of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm in relation to the girl who suffered the stab wound to the heart.

On the other two attempted murder charges, he offered the jury the alternative verdict of guilty of assault causing harm.

'Blandly Cheerful'

In December last year, Bouchaker's lawyers argued before the Central Criminal Court that he was suffering from a mental disorder and was unfit to stand trial.

During the hearing, a defence consultant forensic psychiatrist told the court that she interviewed Bouchaker on five occasions over the past two years with the aid of an Arabic interpreter.

During the interviews, she said Bouchaker was "smiling and calm" and that it seemed to her that he "didn't have the capacity to understand the serious nature of the charges or the matters before the court."

She described Bouchaker as "blandly cheerful", with "inappropriate jocularity unwarranted by the circumstances."

The witness concluded that Bouchaker was unable to enter a plea and lacked the capacity to object to jurors, to give evidence, follow evidence or to be cross-examined.However in March this year, Mr Justice Hunt found that Bouchaker was fit to stand trial.

He said that despite Bouchaker's cognitive limitations, he can be accommodated and is capable of mounting a defence and understanding the nature of the charges against him.