Firefighter tells Bouchaker trial about chaos and injuries in Parnell Square

A firefighter has told a court how he witnessed scenes of chaos and treated serious injuries when he arrived at Parnell Square in Dublin in the wake of an alleged attempted murder.

The Central Criminal Court in Dublin has heard multiple children and an adult were injured in the incident, including a girl who is now in a wheelchair and non-verbal.

Riad Bouchaker, aged 52 and of no fixed address, is charged with the attempted murder of two girls and one boy, and assault causing serious harm to an adult, at Parnell Square East in Dublin City on November 23 2023.

Bouchaker is also charged with assaulting three other people, and with producing a 36cm kitchen knife.

He has pleaded not guilty to all eight charges.

On the seventh day of the trial, the jury of nine men and three women heard from Brian Mulvaney, a station officer with Dublin Fire Brigade who was attached to Tara Street fire station.

He described how his crew were en route to Henry Street when they heard about an incident at Parnell Square and he made the decision to divert them.

Arriving he found the area to be “chaotic” and said it was apparent there were three people who needed assistance.

They were a small girl, a woman who “looked distressed” and an adult male who was surrounded by a “cordon of women holding hands like a chain”.

The women “screamed at us to get back”, he said, until they realised they were firefighters.

His crew of three and their driver attended the injured.

The girl was lying on her back as CPR was being administered to her, Mr Mulvaney said, adding her pink shoes “stood out” and “I still remember them to this day”.

The woman was sitting on steps and had “a lot of blood on her back”, he said, he saw a “large laceration on her back” and “an internal organ was protruding through”.

He said he was also told about two other injured children who had been brought inside a “school or creche” and he went in to check on them.

Returning to the woman he found her “in a lot of distress” and tried to dress her wound so she could get on a stretcher and brought to hospital.

Describing the man’s condition he said he initially thought he was unconscious but he was breathing and was responding to the stimulus of pain.

Mr Mulvaney said he also spoke to other parents near the scene who were in “great distress” and assured them the parents of any children who had been injured were already on scene.

He said he could not let them any closer as the area was a crime scene.

The trial continues.