The family of the little girl stabbed as she came out of school in Parnell Square almost two years ago in an attack that shocked the country say that they “want justice” and that they have been left without answers despite their daughter suffering severe injuries and being left in a critical condition from which she is still recovering.
In a harrowing and poignant update posted to the Go Fund Me page set up to help the little girl, aged just 5 when she was attacked outside Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire, her family have described the “nightmare” she endured when she was stabbed and in the long recovery that followed.
“Picture this,” the update begins. “One day, at the end of your work day, you are standing outside your workplace, and suddenly, you see a commotion. You run because your instincts tell you to do so, only you cannot run because something is stopping you from doing it.”
“And then you slip into a nightmare, one that you try to escape, try to climb a tree or a wall to get out.”
“And then you wake up. However, you cannot move, for as much as you try, you simply cannot move. Your chest hurts, your eyes are sore, your arms and legs are heavy. You are somewhere you have never been, you don’t recognise anything. There are people around you, all wearing uniforms. Lots of lights, beeping, wires, tubes, windows. You see a familiar face, hear a familiar voice telling you that you are safe. ‘Safe from what? Can someone please tell me what is happening?'”
“No one can hear you. There is a tube down your throat. And your voice doesn’t come out. The words in your head are clear, but they don’t register,” the update said.
“Days, weeks, months, go by. It is all very alien still. You are not able to speak, you are unable to walk. You can lift one arm, very slowly. You cannot eat because you haven’t ‘learnt’ how to swallow. Instead, you have a tube going into your stomach.”
“And the days go by. People guess what you want because you still cannot speak. They change your nappy, wipe your mouth, bathe you, all the things you managed to do yourself. You are completely dependent. On top of that, you are given medication 4 times a day. Drugs which make you groggy, even if they are meant to help. You look at yourself in the mirror, but it is a completely different person from whom you remember. You have scars across your chest, on your neck, on your arm from all the different life-saving procedures. It is a lot. You just want to understand,” the update continued.
Her family said that despite all their daughter had suffered they had “no answers” – and sad that they “want justice”.
“This seems like a scene from a movie, but it isn’t. This happened to our little girl. Only it wasn’t a workplace, it was a school. And nothing is certain… She gets by because she is a happy child, surrounded by love.”
“In spite of it all, we have no answers,” they said. “And we know we want justice so that other parents don’t have to go through what we are.”
The little girl spent 281 days in the children’s hospital in Temple Street before being moved to another facility.
A man has been charged in relation to the incident. His case is currently before the Circuit Criminal Court. Riad Bouchaker, 50, of no fixed address, is accused of trying to murder two girls and a boy. Bouchaker, who is originally from Algeria, faces eight charges in relation to the incident.
He is also accused of causing serious harm to a care worker, and assault causing harm to another male child and a girl, as well as the production of a 36cm kitchen knife. Additionally, he is charged with assault causing harm to a French national.
“THE LITTLE GIRL WE KNEW DIED THAT DAY”
In an interview with the Irish Independent, the little girl’s mother said that she ran to the school and saw her daughter’s pink Barbie shoes and her Paw Patrol school bag on the pavement and then her little girl lying “on the pavement, surrounded by people desperately trying to save her.”
Her daughter’s life, she said, will never be the same. “Emily, who turned six last month, is non-verbal and cannot walk. She is fed through a PEG tube and needs constant care.”
“The little girl we knew died that day,” Nicola said. “She did die. So, on November 23, we’re going to celebrate her second birth. Her rebirth. I think that the important thing is to know there is there is hope and there is beauty and there is love.”
In a June update, the little girl’s family also said: “Our angel warrior’s resilience is impressive. Even after an unexpected stay back in hospital, she smiled through lines being put in, bloods being drawn, oxygen mask, the works.”
To assist the family, see the Go Fund Me page here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/k54tan-roisin