Riad Bouchaker said social welfare refusal made him go into ‘blackout’

A man accused of attempting to murder three children told Irish police he was “upset” at a negative social welfare decision, but added he “did not mean to hurt anybody”.

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.

Bouchaker, 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.

On the 10th day of the trial, members of the jury were shown CCTV footage of interviews between him and members of the Irish police service An Garda Síochána in December 2023.

Through an interpreter, Bouchaker said he had been given a “negative decision” by the Department of Social Welfare and explained he felt like “this country is telling me to leave”.

He said he was “sick”, not in his “right mind”, and did not “want to kill or harm the children”.

The jury previously heard Bouchaker had brain surgery in 2021 and suffered a further head injury during the interventions of members of the public which required hospital treatment for roughly a month.

The jury was previously told he now has an “acquired brain injury”.

In the interview played on Tuesday, Bouchaker was cautioned and told he did not have to provide any answers but anything he did say may be used in evidence.

He was accompanied by his solicitor and an interpreter for the interview which lasted roughly an hour, and indicated he understood the caution.

Bouchaker’s interpreter told gardaí that the accused said he had a “fish memory” when asked about the events of November 23.

Through the interpreter, Bouchaker said: “I was upset when I received something. I threw it away.”

The translator said the accused said he “did something” and referred to a hand gesture of holding something in his hand, adding: “I know I did something bad but I’m sure I did not kill or want to kill or harm the children.”

Asked what was in his hand, Bouchaker said it was a knife.

Further asked to explain where he got the knife, he said it was “brand new” and he wanted to take it with him back home.

He said he had found it in his accommodation and that he “never saw it before”.

In a later interview, Bouchaker said he wanted to bring the knife “home” to Algeria because he liked it.

When gardaí earlier asked him to explain what he meant by “something bad”, Bouchaker told them through the interpreter that: “For 14 years, I have been applying. They said no.

“It sounded like this country is telling me to leave. I was upset, I put my hand here and then I did not mean to do what happened.”

Bouchaker said he found himself “shaking”.

He added: “I don’t know what’s happened. I know I’m sick and the doctor said I’m sick.”

The accused was shown a knife and a bag during the interview.

He said he recognised the objects as his bag and the knife he got “from home”.

When shown what gardaí said they believed to be packaging for the knife, the interpreter said: “He’s saying ‘please guys kill me, it has been 180 years of waiting’.”

Bouchaker, through the interpreter, also said: “That girl, I am ready for whatever the family wants.”

The translator later added: “He wants me to tell you this: ‘I did something that I feel I was dead when I did it’.

“‘Whatever they want, I never meant to kill anybody. I am an Irish national. The social welfare refusal decision made me go into blackout and my brother told me what’s wrong with you and you are not this kind of person’.”

In a subsequent interview, Bouchaker said the letter had to do with a disability allowance he had applied for.

He said he had discussed the letter with his brother, became “mad” and tore it up.

Earlier, Bouchaker also told the gardaí that “for 19 years” he never had any contact with people and was always alone, adding that he had written to the Department of Social Welfare three times recently to change their mind but nothing happened.

Gardaí then showed Bouchaker CCTV footage from Parnell Square East where he identified himself in the clips.

The interpreter said that from “putting two and two together” and “half phrases” that Bouchaker had said: “I did something wrong and I was upset because of the negative decision I got from the social welfare but I did not mean to hurt anybody.”

He said he had never did anything similar in his life and was “happy” the girl “was saved”.

He described the actions in the CCTV as someone who was “mental”, later adding “it wasn’t my mind”.

Through the interpreter, he said: “I don’t know why I did that.

“My mind feels like there is no brain in my head. It feels like it is squeezed, smashed and do whatever you want with me, guys.”

He said he was not conscious of what he was doing and “not in my mind at all”.

Asked “why children” by gardaí, the interpreter said he responded that they “did nothing to deserve what happened to them but it wasn’t me in my right mind”.

He said it was the parents who are the ones who “got hurt most” and added he would “never do that” in his conscious mind”.

The interpreter told Gardaí he said: “I know myself. I was not in my right mind. And I’ve never done anything of that sort in my life.”

The trial continues.