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The mother of the little girl who suffered catastrophic injuries after being subjected to a frenzied knife attack at a primary school in Parnell Square said that the end of the trial has not brought closure because her child must now battle every day.
The trial of Riad Bouchaker who was found guilty of 3 charges of attempted murder this week, heard from the child’s mother who said that her daughter had suffered devastating injures as a result of being repeatedly stabbed and was now in a wheelchair, is non-verbal, is “learning how to swallow”, and gets all her nutrition through a tube.
She said that the girl can now communicate “yes or no” through blinking, but that her muscles “do the absolute opposite of what we want them to do”. The girl is unable to go to the toilet by herself, “cannot reach anything”, and “has to take medicine to fall asleep.” She also stated that her daughter needs to be sedated if she gets “too hot” or “constipated”.
In an update to an online fundraiser to help the family provide full-time care for their little girl, the mother said that she was “waiting for the trial to be over before posting these words”.
She said that while she welcomed the guilty verdict, it did not bring closure but that justice was served.
“I feel relief knowing that what happened to us by the hands of that man will not happen to anyone else. I do not wish it on anyone. Seeing our daughter battle every day in her condition and not get to be the full bubbly version of herself chips away from my already aching heart,” she said.
“But I, we persevere because she needs us and deserves a chance. A chance at happiness,” she wrote.
“That is what parents want for their children: health and happiness. Since I cannot guarantee the former, I will work my hardest for the latter. This chapter is over. We have woken up today with a bit of solace,” she said.
“As I go, I would like to thank everyone and clarify what I meant by not feeling anger. I feel all the emotions, but the negative I choose my absolute best not to allow them to linger because I do not have time for them to allow them to consume me. My daughter, my son and my husband need me,” the mother wrote. “Be kind to one another.”
She had previously told Sky News that she does not know if Riad Bouchaker “even understands what he did”.
Asked if she forgave Bouchaker she said “I think he has to forgive himself first”.
She said she feels no anger toward the man guilty of attempted murder because “it’s not going to change anything”.
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