Riad Bouchaker, the man behind the horrifying Parnell Square attack in November 2023, was convicted of all eight charges in relation to the stabbing this week.
The knife-wielder was found guilty of attempting to murder three young children outside the Dublin school two-and-a-half years ago, following a three-week trial at the Central Criminal Court.
The horrifying incident sent shockwaves across the country at the time and was followed by violent riots in Dublin city centre.
During the trial, jurors heard how one of the young girls that Bouchaker attempted to murder now has a ‘lifelong, life-limiting’ condition and requires 24-hour care.
Aged five at the time of the attack, the girl will have to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life and is non-verbal.
She has to be fed through a PEG tube to her stomach, as she cannot swallow her own saliva safely.
In the wake of Bouchaker’s guilty verdict, the young girl’s mother has opened up about the terrifying ordeal and how she felt the blood drain from her ‘whole body’ when she was told of the attack over the phone.
She had immediately sprinted to the scene to see her daughter lying on the blood-stained pavement as the emergency crew attempted resuscitation.
The girl’s mother told Sky News: ‘I saw her shoes and I saw when they lifted her. I think there were four people holding her body and they had taken her clothes off because of where her injury was.
‘It’s burned in my memory.’
She shared that both she and the doctors feared that the young girl was not going to make it, though when the victim awoke, she had no memory of being attacked.
Her mother added: ‘It was probably one of the hardest things that I had to do to explain to her.’
As an immigrant herself, the victim’s mother expressed that the violent aftermath of the attack was ‘concerning’ and she has even been told to ‘go back home’ while speaking in a non-English language to her children.
She also said that she does not feel anger towards Bouchaker, explaining that no one ‘in their right mind would have done that’ and ‘it’s not going to change anything’.
