Brazilian hero ‘happy’ stabbed girl improving
Victim’s mother gave courier drawing her child had f inished that day
THE Brazilian food delivery rider who bravely tackled the knifeman who was attacking schoolchildren in Dublin city centre last month has told of his relief that a fiveyear-old girl seriously injured in the incident has been moved from intensive care.
Speaking last night from his home in Rio de Janeiro, where he is spending Christmas with his family, Caio Benicio told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘I was very happy to hear this news and I continue to pray for her full recovery.’
Mr Benicio also revealed he visited the girl’s mother in hospital before he flew home to Brazil.
‘She gave me as a gift a drawing that her daughter made on the day of the attack... It broke my heart.’
Speaking to the MoS just hours before he boarded his flight home, Mr Benicio said he had been in contact with the girl’s family and offered ‘to assist them in any way I can’.
‘They have yet to accept this offer, but it is my intention to support them the way you have all supported me,’ he said.
The Deliveroo courier was passing by Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire at Parnell Square on his motorbike at
‘It’s great that my story served as inspiration’
lunchtime on November 23 when he suddenly saw a man attacking a child with a knife.
After he had intervened to help stop the attack, a member of the public –unknown to Mr Benicio – set up a fundraiser called ‘Buy Caio Benicio a pint’.
It generated an extraordinary public response, raising just under €370,000 so far for Mr Benicio, which gave him the chance to enjoy an extended Christmas holiday at home with his wife Clara Biscaia, daughter Lara, 18, and son Breno, 12.
He told the MoS: ‘It’s great to be with family and friends. I was invited to participate in some social events. It’s great to know that my story served as inspiration and motivation for so many people.’
Mr Benicio said he is spending Christmas at his ‘mother’s house with the whole family together’.
He said: ‘They are all very proud of me and this feeling is incredible.’
On Friday it was confirmed the five-year-old girl, who is being treated at Dublin’s Temple Street Children’s Hospital, left the intensive care unit last week and has been moved to a ward.
Earlier this month, her family posted on a GoFundMe account: ‘Our little girl is a warrior. She is still fighting. She remains in the PICU [paediatric intensive care unit] with hopes of moving to the ward before the end of the year.
‘We can all feel the love and prayers every second of the day.
Had it not been for all of our friends, family and everyone’s support, we wouldn’t have had the strength to stand, and for that we thank you all.’
On Thursday, a 50-year-old man was charged with the attempted murder of the three children and with causing serious harm to a care worker at Parnell Square last month. Riad Bouchaker, of no fixed
‘We can all feel the love and prayers’
abode, appeared before Judge Brian Smyth at Dublin District Court on Thursday afternoon in relation to the incident.
Mr Bouchaker was also charged with the possession and production of a weapon, a 36cm kitchen knife, to which he replied: ‘I am a sick person.’ He was remanded in custody until after Christmas.