A Garda testifying in the Riad Bouchaker trial has recalled seeing a woman screaming in pain after he arrived in Parnell Square. 

The 52-year-old faces eight charges in relation to an alleged knife attack on Dublin’s Parnell Square in November 2023. He denies all charges. 

Yesterday, the court heard from three witnesses, one of whom was Detective Sergeant Aaron Grattan. 

Garda Grattan is currently working with the Special Detective Unit, but was with Divisional Drug Unit at the time. 

He was on patrol with two colleagues when they received a report of a stabbing on Parnell Square. 

Upon arrival, he found the scene filled with emergency vehicles and saw a woman sitting on some steps receiving treatment for a large wound to her torso. 

That woman was childcare worker Leanne Flynn, who testified in the trial earlier in the week. 

Garda Grattan recalled she was screaming in pain and he accompanied her to hospital. 

While there, he became aware that the suspect, Riad Bouchaker, was in the hospital and he decided to seize items that had been cut from him during treatment, including his shoes and underwear. 

The aim of doing so was to use the items as potential evidence in any trial. 

“Not long afterwards he met with Garda Adam Keighley - we heard from him yesterday, he was the first Garda on the scene,” Courts Correspondent Frank Greaney recounted on All Rise: The Riad Bouchaker Trial.

“He was the one who handcuffed Riad Bouchaker and searched him. 

“Garda Keighley handed over additional property recovered from Mr Bouchaker including a mobile phone, a wallet, a black hat. 

“Some of those items were shown to the jurors today and are now exhibits in the case.” 

Garda Grattan testified that he had also obtained a urine sample and, after learning that Ms Flynn had been taken into surgery, he went to Mountjoy Garda Station and handed over all seized items. 

That, he said, brought his involvement in the case to an end. 

“That almost brought his evidence to an end save for a brief cross-examination,” Mr Greaney said. 

“During which he agreed that based on his limited interaction with Mr Bouchaker at the matter hospital, Mr Bouchaker he said appeared to be unconscious.”

The trial continues.

Main image: Parnell Square. Picture by: RollingNews.ie.