Riad Bouchaker, 52, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.
A jury has been shown CCTV footage of a man allegedly carrying out an attack on children in Dublin.
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 attempted murder of two girls and one boy, and assault causing serious harm to a care worker, 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 second day of his trial in Dublin, the jury was shown an hour-long CCTV compilation.
They were told that the clips showed what Irish police believe to be the movements of the suspect before and during the incident on Parnell Square East.
Garda John Hetherton from Mountjoy Garda Station told the court he had been working on CCTV investigation in the street crime unit.
Under questioning from Karl Finnegan SC, for the prosecution, Mr Hetherton was the witness as the footage was played to the jury.
The garda agreed with Mr Finnegan’s description of the footage as the barrister said it appears to show a man in a black cap, carrying a backpack approaching a group of schoolchildren.
The CCTV footage shown to the jury also showed what gardaí believe are the suspect’s movements during the incident itself.
Mr Finnegan had said the same compilation had shown a man in the nearby areas around a school in Parnell Square East from approximately an hour earlier, around 12.30pm on the day in question.
The jury was shown footage which the barrister and garda said appears to show a man entering the back yard of another premises and looking at the direction of the school.
He said the footage then appears to show a man walking behind a group of schoolchildren in Parnell Square East holding a bag in front of him, at around 1pm.
It also then showed a man standing near the junction of a lane at approximately 13.15.
The next section of CCTV footage was timestamped to around 13.32.
Mr Finnegan and the garda said the footage would show a man walking up Parnell Square in the direction of a school and stopping at a bus stop outside the premises.
The compilation, which also featured footage from cameras on a Dublin Bus, showed a man at a bus stop holding a bag to his front.
The jury was then shown a clip from 13.34 which Mr Finnegan and the witness said should show a man standing at a bus stop for around one minute and 46 seconds before moving towards a group of children.
A portion of this clip was then played zoomed in and at approximately half speed.
The compilation finished after this clip and the proceedings ended for the day.
Earlier, Mr Hetherton had confirmed 49 CCTV exhibits were obtained from various locations as part of the investigation.
He agreed with Mr Finnegan that the exhibits show what gardaí believe to be the suspect’s movements before and during the incident in Parnell Square.
The jury of nine men and three women were then shown the CCTV montage lasting more than an hour, having earlier been provided with two maps of the area surrounding the incident.
They had been told gardaí had also prepared a document with descriptions of what they believe is shown in the clips.
As the montage was shown, Mr Finnegan said it appeared to show the movements of a man wearing a black cap, black jacket and blue jeans who was carrying a backpack.
He said it showed him move from the Depaul hostel in Little Britain Street towards the Jervis shopping centre after 11am.
At the shopping centre, he appears to engage with other men.
He then also appears to go through paper documents with one of the men in an area near the lifts.
Mr Finnegan says the footage then appears to show a man ripping up some paper and discarding it towards a Christmas tree in the shopping centre.
Bouchaker, accompanied by an interpreter, was in court as the footage was shown – which was paused for a lunch break.
In the afternoon session, the jury was shown further footage appearing to show a man return to the hostel before leaving again with a backpack and wheeled suitcase at 11.45am.
The footage then captures the movements of a man towards Talbot Street, where he holds a discussion with another man inside a premises.
Mr Finnegan said the discussions appeared to be over the bag and perhaps its contents.
Earlier in the morning session, the court heard evidence from the mother of a child treated at Crumlin Hospital after the attack.
The jury heard she had been informed of an incident and told she should go to the hospital – where she arrived before the ambulance.
She said she got into the ambulance where her son was accompanied by a member of An Garda Síochána who was showing him cartoons on his phone.
The court heard the boy had a wound on his neck with was treated with paper stitches and Steri-Strips.
The trial, under judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt, will continue on Friday.
