Orla O'Donnell

Around 100 solicitors who work in the criminal legal aid system in Dublin have protested outside the Courts of Criminal Justice as part of their continuing campaign against a new model of payment due to be introduced next week. The Department of Justice intends to bring in a flat fee payment per client on 1 July, regardless of the number of hearings involved in a case.

A five-year-old girl who was stabbed in the heart on Parnell Square in Dublin almost three years ago has been left with a "life-long, life-limiting" severe disability, the Central Criminal Court has been told. 52-year-old Riad Bouchaker denies attempting to murder the little girl and two other children in November 2023. He also denies assaulting childcare worker Leanne Flynn as well as two other children and a teenager who intervened.

Gardaí accused Riad Bouchaker of going for the smallest children he could find and waiting for an opportunity when there were few adults around before he attacked them with a knife at Dublin's Parnell Square in November 2023, the Central Criminal Court has heard. Mr Bouchaker told gardaí that he was a "sick person in this incident," when it was put to him that one of the children he attacked had life changing injuries. He was also accused of attempting to cut another child’s throat.