Riad Bouchaker has been found guilty of attempting to murder three children during a knife attack on a Dublin street in 2023.
Rioting broke out in the Irish capital in the wake of the stabbing, with vehicles set on fire, shops looted and infrastructure damaged.
The disorder, which began the evening of the attack after a crowd gathered at the edge of the crime scene in Parnell Square East, made international headlines.
Bouchaker, 52, of no fixed abode, spoke to his interpreter and a speech and language support worker after the verdicts were read out at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
The Algerian national, who is an Irish citizen, was found guilty of the attempted murder of a then-five year old girl, who was stabbed in the heart during the attack and is now non-verbal, uses a wheelchair and cannot swallow safely.
He was also found guilty of the attempted murder of a five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl.
He was further convicted of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to the children’s care worker Leanne Flynn, who he stabbed as she intervened to protect the children.
Bouchaker was also found guilty of assault causing harm to another boy and girl, as well as to a French teenager who intervened as he passed by, and of the production of the 36cm kitchen knife.
He had denied all eight charges.
The disorder began after crowds gathered at the edge of the crime scene and a protest was held at the Spire on O’Connell Street on the evening of the stabbing on 23 November 2023.
Protesters started to scuffle with officers and flares and fireworks were thrown at the Garda cordon at the crime scene, before the public order unit was deployed just before 7pm to the Parnell Square and O’Connell Street area.
A total of 250 public-order officers were sent into the city in what was the “largest-ever” such deployment, with 400 officers sent in total.
A cordon was put up around Leinster House, the Irish parliament building, and order was eventually restored at 11.30pm.
Of the 28 vehicles damaged that night, 15 were official Garda cars and two belonged to the Dublin Fire Brigade.
More than 60 premises or places of business were subject to criminal damage, authorities said, in what politicians estimated would amount to tens of millions of euro worth of damage.
Dozens of people have been charged and appeared before the courts in relation to the disorder.
The scenes put pressure on the Irish Government over its ability to maintain safety in the capital.
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