A man who denies attempting to murder three children at Dublin’s Parnell Square told gardaí that being refused a social welfare benefit that day “made me go into blackout” and he “never intended to kill anybody”. The Central Criminal Court heard that Det Garda Conor Mackey said to Riad Bouchaker during an interview after his arrest that the “one question” is “Why? Why children?” The court heard Bouchaker replied: “They did nothing to deserve what happened to them, but it wasn’t me in my right mind.” He said he knew the parents of the children “are the ones who are going to be hurt most, but I was not conscious, I would never do that in my conscious mind”.“I know myself, I was not in my right mind, I have never done anything like that in my life.” Tuesday is the 10th day of the trial of Bouchaker (52), a native of Algeria of no fixed abode, who denies charges of attempting to murder two girls and a boy on Parnell Square East on November 23rd, 2023. He has denied assault causing harm to two other children and to a passerby who intervened, and denied a further charge of assault causing serious harm to childcare worker Leanne Flynn. He also denied producing a 36cm kitchen knife capable of inflicting serious injury. The prosecution case is that Bouchaker‘s actions on the day of the attacks showed he intended to kill. A five-year-old girl who suffered severe brain injuries is now non-verbal and using a wheelchair. When shown CCTV of the Parnell Square incident during the Garda interview, Bouchaker agreed it was him in the footage and said it was “the action of someone who’s mental, thank God they’re all alive”.When Mackey said those were his actions “because you’re angry at social welfare”, he said: “I don’t know why I did that, my mind feels like there is no brain I my head, feels like it is squeezed, smashed.” He told the garda: “Please do what you want to me.” He said he was “not conscious” of what he was doing. “God is my witness that I was not in my mind at all.” During another exchange, Bouchaker said: “I did something that I feel I was dead when I did it. Whatever they want, I never meant to kill anybody. “I am an Irish national, the social welfare refusal decision made me go into blackout and my brother told me, what’s wrong with you, you are not this kind of person. “I don’t know people, I only know my brother. For 19 years, I don’t speak to people, I never have. I’ve never had any contact with people, I’m always alone.” The jury on Tuesday watched an interview with Bouchaker recorded at Mountjoy Garda station on December 20th, 2023. Bouchaker, the jury heard, was arrested in hospital earlier that day and the interview was the second of seven carried out with him. Bouchaker, the jury has heard, had a head operation in 2021, suffered a head injury during the incident at Parnell Square and now has an acquired brain injury. Prior to the trial, Judge Tony Hunt found him fit to plead.On Tuesday, Sgt Ben Geoghegan, the member in charge at Mountjoy Garda station when Bouchaker was detained, said a second interview with the accused was carried out at 1.40pm after his detention was extended.Mackey, Det Garda Paul Griffin, Bouchaker’s solicitor and a French Arabic interpreter were also present.Asked to say what he remembered about November 23rd and how he ended up in hospital, Bouchaker said: “I don’t remember, I don’t know.” When told he had earlier referred to a stabbing and had said he had done something wrong, he was asked to tell about the “something wrong”.He said: “I was upset when I received something, I threw it away.” Bouchaker made a hand gesture, indicating holding something in his hand, and said he had done “something bad” but “am sure I did not kill or want to kill or to harm the children”.He said it was a knife that was in his hand, a “brand new knife” that he wanted to take “back home”. Asked what he meant about not meaning to kill or harm the children, he referred to not getting the payment and said: “It sounded like this country is telling me to leave, I was upset.”He said: “I do not know what happened, I know I’m sick and the doctor says I’m sick.”When he was shown a knife and told that gardaí believed this was the knife he was referring to, he said: “Please guys kill me, it has been 108 years of waiting.”He also said: “I recognise this, it is a knife, it was in the luggage I had.” When shown a black backpack, he said that was his.When shown CCTV from Parnell Square East on November 23rd, 2023, he said, in what the interpreter described as “half phrases”: “I did something wrong, I was upset because of the negative decision I got from social welfare but I did not mean to hurt anybody.”When he said he was “glad the girl is safe”, he was asked who told him that, and said someone told him in hospital “the girl is alive”.The trial continues.