A man being attacked on Dublin’s Rosie Hackett Bridge thought Adel Attal was coming to help. Instead, Attal took a 12-inch kitchen knife and stabbed him repeatedly. The Algerian national already had 21 District Court convictions, including relevant assault and knife-possession offences.
The attack
On 2 June 2025 another man first stabbed the victim in the stomach. Attal approached during the struggle, took the knife and repeatedly stabbed or slashed the victim in the back, abdomen and leg area. One back wound nearly reached the spine. Attal threw the knife into the Liffey and fled. Gardaí found him shortly afterwards; forensic evidence linked him to the victim, and the Garda Underwater Unit recovered the weapon.
The victim spent two days in intensive care and three weeks in hospital. Judge Jonathan Dunphy called the attack vicious and cowardly and said the victim’s survival was close to miraculous. Attal pleaded guilty to assault causing serious harm. A nine-and-a-half-year headline was reduced to seven-and-a-half years, with the final year suspended.
The prior record
The final sentencing reports record 21 previous District Court convictions, including theft, assault of a garda, public intoxication and drugs offences, with relevant convictions for assault and possessing a knife. The complete conviction schedule is not public. An earlier plea report mentioned only a cocaine-possession conviction; the later sentencing account supplies the fuller total.
Residence and immigration facts
Attal had reportedly lived in Ireland for about two years and was working as a kitchen porter while residing in State accommodation in Mallow. Reporting does not identify the accommodation programme or his immigration permission. It therefore does not establish that he was an asylum applicant, visa overstayer or unlawfully present. The court heard that he intended to return to Algeria, but no deportation or removal order has been reported.
Chronology
- By June 2025: Approximately two years living in Ireland; State accommodation and kitchen work reported.
- 2 June 2025: Bridge attack, arrest and knife recovery.
- 4 June 2025: Bail refused on flight-risk and public-safety grounds.
- 28 April 2026: Guilty plea.
- 10 July 2026: Effective six-and-a-half-year sentence imposed.
Cost benchmark
Six-and-a-half years at the Irish Prison Service’s 2024 staffed-space average of €99,072 represents a gross capacity benchmark of €643,968. A simple ordinary-remission scenario would be about €482,976.
Questions the State should answer
- Over what period did Attal accumulate 21 convictions?
- What risk assessment followed the earlier assault and knife offences?
- What immigration permission and State accommodation programme applied?
- Have immigration authorities assessed his status after this serious-harm conviction?
- Is his stated plan to leave supported by any formal removal process?
- What was the full public cost of the attack and prosecution?