A man has told a jury he hit a man a “dig to the jaw” after seeing him “trying to cut up kids” on Parnell Square in Dublin.Warren Donohue told the Central Criminal Court that he and family members were celebrating his daughter’s 11th birthday on November 23rd, 2023 and were walking on Parnell Square East. He said he saw what he thought was an argument between a man, whom the defence accepts was Riad Bouchaker and a woman.Donohue said he ran towards the scene and saw Bouchaker had a knife and was “trying to cut up kids”. He said he hit him “a dig in the jaw”, causing him to fall to the ground.Warren Donohue leaving the Central Criminal Court after giving evidence on Tuesday in the trial of Riad Bouchaker. Photograph: Collins Courts “He had to be put down because of what he was doing,” said the witness, who added that he also kicked Bouchaker when he was on the ground. Donohue was giving evidence on the fifth day of the trial of Bouchaker (52), a native of Algeria of no fixed abode, who has denied attempting to murder three children, two girls and a boy, on Parnell Square East on November 23rd, 2023. He also denies charges of assault causing harm to two other children and to a passerby who intervened, and a charge of assault causing serious harm to childcare worker Leanne Flynn. He also denies producing an 36cm kitchen knife, an article capable of inflicting serious injury. The prosecution case is that Bouchaker‘s actions on the day showed he intended to kill. A five-year-old girl suffered severe brain injuries and is now non-verbal and uses a wheelchair. Bouchaker told gardaí during interviews that he knew he had done something wrong but was sick and not in his right mind at the time and had no intention to kill anyone. He said he was angry about being refused a social welfare payment that day and had a knife.Bouchaker, the jury heard, had a head operation in 2021, suffered a head injury during the incident at Parnell Square and now has an acquired brain injury. Before the trial, Judge Tony Hunt found Bouchaker fit to plead and special mental health defences are not available to him.The jury heard evidence on Tuesday from seven people who were on Parnell Square East on the day of the incident. Siobhán Kearney, who was on Parnell Square attending the inquest into the 1981 Stardust fire disaster, said she was on Parnell Square East about 1.45pm when she heard a scream and saw a man across the road “stabbing kids”. Siobhán Kearney was on Parnell Square on November 23rd, 2023, attending the inquest into the 1981 Stardust fire disaster, in which he brother Liam was injured and later died. Photograph: Collins Courts She ran across the road, screaming “he’s stabbing the f**king kids” and to get the children out of the way. The man had a knife in his right hand, she said, and had stabbed two children and lunged towards a third. Kearney said there was a scuffle, she jumped on the man to try to get him to the ground to stop him, and he landed at her feet. It was “chaotic”, she said, and the knife fell and she told a “lovely young man” who was not Irish to get it. Some people were trying “to boot in” at the man on the ground and, to prevent that, she kept saying “we’re not savages”. The man seemed to be “knocked out” and was “not going to do any more damage”, she added. Under cross-examination, Kearney said she could only say what she saw from across road, which was that two children had been stabbed and the attacker “lunged into” a third. This was when she arrived at the scene, she said. When counsel said, despite the views of people who tried to burn down the city that night, two men who helped at the scene were foreigners, she said it is “everyone’s civic duty to protect children”. She was sure the two were “lovely men”, as much as Warren Donohue was, and all had shown bravery.Michael Healy was walking with his partner down Parnell Square East when he heard screaming and looked across the road. A woman was between some children and a man, who had a knife and seemed to have knocked the woman to the ground. He said it looked as if she was between him and kids and was trying to stop him. The man made at the children, not any particular child, had the knife raised and looked like he wanted to stab any one or all of them, Healy said. “They had backpacks and he wanted to turn them around, he seemed to want to stab them in the front.”He said the man “seemed intent” on hurting the children. He could see one or two children struggling to get away from him, but he was “certainly hurting two, maybe three children”. Other people intervened and the man was knocked to the ground, he said. Under cross-examination, Healy said Bouchaker’s handling of the knife looked more like a “stabbing” action than one of “waving” the weapon in the vicinity of the children.Eileen O’Sullivan, who was with Healy, said she saw Bouchaker “throwing off” a woman and going with a knife towards a little kid with a backpack. She said the attacker “swivelled” one child around, trying to stab them in the chest. A lot of people were trying to stop him, but he was “hell bent” on getting to the children, she said.The trial continues on Wednesday.