Riad Bushaker, 52, of no fixed address, is charged with the attempted murder of two girls and one boy and assault causing serious harm to care worker Lynne Flynn in Parnell Square East, Dublin city center, on November 23, 2023.
The jury was told that alternative verdicts would be available to them regarding the attempted murder charges.
The defense lawyer urged jurors not to view Bushaker as a “monster” and said “revenge” should have no place in the courtroom and urged them to look at the case “calmly and rationally.”
Trial takes place at Dublin Central Criminal Court (Niall Carson/PA)
Bushaker is also charged with assaulting two small children and a teenager and making a 36cm long kitchen knife.
He pleaded not guilty to all eight charges.
Jurors heard Bushacker had brain surgery in 2021 when part of his skull was removed, leaving part of his brain vulnerable.
He suffered a further head injury when members of the public intervened on November 23, 2023, requiring him to undergo further treatment in hospital.
His defense said Buschacker’s cognitive function, memory, concentration, communication and decision-making were affected as a result.
The jury of nine men and three women was told Monday that the prosecution’s case was officially closed and the defense would not call for evidence.
Judge Tony Hunt told the jury that every defendant has the right to refuse to testify and the defendant “can say, ‘I want nothing to do with this trial: you prove it.’
In his closing argument to the jury, prosecuting attorney Carl Finnegan S.K. said he wanted to make it “crystal clear” that he was asking the jury to find Buschacker guilty on all eight counts.
He said that if the defense had argued that Buschacker did not intend to kill anyone and that he was not in his right mind at the time, he urged them to “totally reject that defense theory” because it was “inconsistent” with CCTV footage, eyewitness accounts and the injuries of the people involved in the charges.
He said “most importantly” they should reject it as it was “inconsistent with common sense” and the suggestion that he did not intend to kill or harm was “absurd”.
Referring to Bushacker’s statements to police a month after the stabbing in which Bushacker expressed regret or was grateful that no one had died, Mr Finnegan said that “even if true”, it was “irrelevant” to the purpose of his actions at the time.
He said it “didn’t help one bit” that Bushacker said “thank God” no one died during the interview with gardaí and said it indicated he understood death was a likely consequence of his actions.
Mr Finnegan said Bushaker’s statement “thank God” that no one died was an “acknowledgment of how close it was to murder” and that he was “only stopped by the courage of others”.
He also said Buschacker’s defense assertion of a lack of intent was a “lame defense” that was inconsistent with the evidence.
“Look what it is, ladies and gentlemen,” he said.
The defense lawyer representing Bushacker said all that was on his client’s mind that day was “a toxic mixture of banal frustration and inexplicable darkness” but said there were “substantial issues that need to be resolved in this case, despite its horror.”
He said Bushaker’s actions were “senseless in every respect” and did not rise to the level of “intent” required for conviction.
Candles and tributes left after a vigil held in Parnell Square following the alleged attack (Niall Carson/PA)
He said if Bushaker’s intent had been “murderous” and that he had intended to kill, the “sickening reality” would have been that within seconds of the care worker being “thrown aside” “he would have killed or caused devastating injuries to other children”.
“There are no such injuries and there is no such impact,” the defense lawyer said.
Although he described the police treatment of Bushacker as “flawless” and “correct”, he said that Bushacker’s participation during police interviews was “shaky and incoherent”, that he spoke “gibberish” and that he had “great difficulty understanding the legal precaution”.
He also suggested to the jury that there was “insufficient evidence” for two of the three attempted murder charges.
He said no evidence had been presented that the less than 1cm laceration on the five-year-old boy’s neck was caused by Bushaker, and that there was “nor was there any evidence to support an extremely large number” of attempted murders in relation to the six-year-old girl’s head wound.
He urged jurors to view the defendant not as “some kind of monster,” but as a person being brought to trial.
He said he did not ask them for “your sympathy” for Buschacker, who he said had “suffered, suffered and been somewhat left behind” in the process, because that would have been an “emotional” reaction.
Instead, he asked them if their disabled family member was sitting where Bushaker was, “ask what kind of trial you would like” for them, before adding that juries should represent the “best parts” of society.
He also said “revenge has no place here” and said the “cries” of others calling for it “should find no place in these courts.”
He said there was a danger that a person’s critical faculties could be “simply overwhelmed by the horror” of events and that jurors must “resist this every minute of their deliberations.”
Addressing the jury, Mr Hunt told jurors that proof beyond a reasonable doubt was a “high, strict but not impossible standard”.
“Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not a mathematical formula, it is not like putting two euro coins in a slot machine and pulling the lever,” he said.
“Human affairs are not solved mathematically, so juries are brought in, and you are the experts in human affairs.”
Hunt said jurors were given a “better understanding” of how difficult it is to be sure of events, citing eyewitness accounts and CCTV footage from the case, and said different versions of the same event were common.
Mr Hunt said he would continue to address the jury after 10.30am on Tuesday.