A jury has deliberated for around an hour in the trial of a man accused of attempting to murder three children in Dublin in 2023.
The jury was sent home just after 4pm after requesting several documents, including the judge’s remarks during his charge to them about attempted murder and assault causing harm or intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm.
They also requested the transcripts of four witnesses’ evidence, as well as the transcripts of the prosecution and defence barristers’ closing statements.
The trial of Riad Bouchaker, 52, of no fixed address, began over three weeks ago at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
Bouchaker is charged with the attempted murder of two girls, aged five and six, and one five-year-old boy on Parnell Square East in Dublin city centre on November 23 2023.
He is also charged with intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to care worker Leanne Flynn, with assault causing harm to two young children and a teenager, and with producing a 36cm kitchen knife.
He has pleaded not guilty to all eight charges.
After summarising evidence and explaining alternative verdicts available in the three attempted murder charges, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said to the jury: “Please be objective, please be rational. Please put the emotions, that may well up, firmly to one side.”
He said this was a case that “might be more easy than most” to let emotions interfere, but urged them to “please guard against it” and give a “logical and cold” assessment of the evidence without being affected by any “understandable emotions”.
He also said that while they can change their opinion if they are persuaded to do so, they must not “change your opinion for the pragmatic purpose of coming to a verdict”.
The jury was sent out to deliberate at around 3pm on Tuesday.
Earlier, Mr Justice Hunt told the jury that in the charge relating to the attempted murder of a then-five year old girl – who the court previously heard is now non-verbal and needs to use a wheelchair – the jury had the option of returning a verdict of “intentionally or recklessly caused serious harm”, along with the option of a guilty or not guilty verdict.
He said verdicts of assault causing harm were open to them in the case of the other two attempted murder charges, relating to a five-year-old boy and six-year-old girl.
Mr Hunt said to find someone guilty of attempted murder, it “must be an attempt to kill someone” and not an attempt to frighten and not an attempt to cause serious harm.
He said the level of injury is not “decisive” on whether it was an attempted murder or not, but it can be a factor in the decision.
He said the act must be “cheek by jowl with an actual killing, not something more distant than that” to be attempted murder.
He said the jury must also determine that at the time of the actions, the accused had “a specific intention to kill” as opposed of an intention to frighten or injure.
He said there is not a machine that can be applied “to somebody’s head and divine an intention” and instead they must assess intention as a matter of inference through primary and secondary facts.
“You must assess the evidence, you must assess the facts and the inference that can be drawn from the evidence” as to what purpose Bouchaker had and whether he had the purpose of killing those mentioned in the attempted murder charges.
In relation to the charge of assault causing harm to a teenager, Mr Hunt said the teenager “took a risk” through his intervention but urged the jury not to see this as “a form of consent”.
He said because “you run a risk of defending someone else doesn’t mean you are consenting” to a potential assault, and said the nick of a knife was “certainly capable of constituting harm”, and that it was “a matter for you to decide if it is beyond a reasonable doubt”.
He said in relation to the eighth charge, of possession of a kitchen knife, that if they were not satisfied with an attempted murder verdict, but are satisfied there was an “assault-type” offence, it would not “preclude” a conviction on this charge.
Giving a summary of the evidence, Mr Hunt said the CCTV footage was a useful “yard stick” to measure the accuracy of other evidence.
He said according to the CCTV footage, the time between Bouchaker “moving in” and the intervention of others lasted around 15 seconds, but encouraged the jury to do their own count of CCTV time stamps.
He said by his count there were 16 witnesses to the incident itself who gave evidence, which he said offered a “good” example of how memory is “hugely subject to fallibility” and of people “genuinely doing their best but not being accurate”.
He said “nobody was expecting to be confronted with anything of this kind”, which he called “shocking and horrendous” and which was “relevant in assessing what people saw”.
He summarised the evidence of the witnesses to the incident who gave evidence, and said it was open to the jury to accept some or all, or reject the evidence of those witnesses.
He said the jury had also heard evidence from parents, who described the aftermath and injuries to their children; the evidence of the four witnesses of alleged prior encounters with the accused; medics, emergency service personnel, and investigating gardaí.
He said the Garda interviews with Bouchaker were “important testimony in the case”, though it was “out of court testimony” and not sworn evidence which must be taken into account.
He said it was important to remember the “prime matter to which those various answers that were given is to intention” and as to “what Bouchaker’s state of mind was at the time of these events”.
He said it was “important evidence to consider” and said if any answer given by Bouchaker “remains reasonably possible, then you are obliged to act upon it”.
Read MoreStephen McCullagh to appeal against sentence for murder of Natalie McNally
Man appears in court charged over bus fire during Belfast riots
Jury sent out to consider findings in Noah Donohoe inquest
UK drivers risk £2,500 fines for ‘rarely or never’ carrying out key check
Queen welcomes JK Rowling to Palace of Holyroodhouse
King attends Ceremony of the Keys as Royal Week gets under way in Scotland
