Riad Bouchaker's trial continues.
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The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk with Aviva Insurance.
The trial continues today of Riyad Bouchaker and our courts correspondent Frank Graney is at the Central Criminal Court today with the latest on this. And Frank, yesterday the jury was given a fairly comprehensive overview of what Riyad Bouchaker is alleged to have done. Will you tell us what the prosecuting barrister had to say about the Parnell Square attack and the accused man's alleged role in it?
Well, it's the prosecution's case that Riyadh Bhushakar approached some young school children with a knife and that he just started stabbing. He, as we know, was accused of trying to murder three of the children, two girls and one boy, and he's also accused of assaulting two others. And aside from those charges, he's accused of causing serious harm to a childcare worker who was preparing to bring the children to an after-school creche. She, we heard, was responsible for the children that afternoon and the jury was told they'd hear from her in due course. She herself was stabbed as she tried to intervene. The jury told yesterday that she grabbed Mr. Bouchaker from behind, pulled him back, all the while shouting at him to get away from the kids.
What charges is Riyad Bouchaker facing in the Parnell Square attack?
It was only then that she realised that she had been injured herself. Members of the public also intervened, including a French man who crossed the road when he saw what was going on. The jury was told that he managed to get the knife off. Mr Bouchaker and he was also injured in the process. And I should say that this was all revealed to the jury yesterday by way of the prosecuting barrister's opening address. So it's not evidence and the jurors were told that yesterday. It's simply a roadmap, I suppose, of the case that the prosecution intends to present to the jurors over the coming weeks. But it will obviously be in due course up to the nine men and three women on this jury to decide on the facts of the case.
And while sketching out the case against Mr Bouchak or the prosecuting barrister also spoke about the knife used, he also touched on the Garda investigation then that followed.
Yeah, and again, this was just to assist the jurors by way of explaining what the case is about, what evidence they're likely to hear, what issues they'll ultimately have to decide on. Carl Finnegan is the senior counsel, the prosecuting barrister in this case, and everything he referenced in his opening address will obviously have to be proven in evidence. But he did touch on the suspected weapon, as you say. He described it as a central exhibit in the case. When Gardaí arrived on the scene at Dublin's Parnell Square, They were appointed. We heard the location of the knife. It was lying on the ground close by. As I say, that French man who intervened had taken it off Mr. Bouchacre and had thrown it away.
Photos were taken of it before it was seized and retained by the Gardaí. Mr. Bouchacre was arrested, having been restrained and brought to the ground by members of the public. We heard that he suffered a head injury during that intervention. He spent weeks in hospital as a result. After he was discharged, then he was taken in for questioning. And the jury will no doubt be taken through those Garda interviews in far more detail later on in the trial. But yesterday, Mr Finnegan touched on them. He said that Mr Bouchakar told Garda that what happened was a mistake. He said he did something but didn't know what it was. He said he didn't want to kill anyone that day. He said he was upset because social welfare had refused his application.
He said he wasn't in his right state of mind, that he didn't mean to do what he did. So again, just a thumbnail sketch that was given to the jurors yesterday in relation to the guard interviews and the medical evidence and whatnot that will obviously be presented in evidence in far greater detail as the trial moves on.
OK, now one of the witnesses yesterday is the mother of a young girl who was left with severe brain damage as a result of what happened. Will you tell us, Frank, what she shared with the jury in her testimony?
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