Mum of Romanian suspect in Leicester Square child attack says she 'suffers together with victim's mother'
15 August 2024, 05:53
The mother of the Romanian man accused of stabbing a girl eight times in Leicester Square has said she shares the pain of the victim's family.
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Ioan Pintaru has been charged with attempted murder over the seemingly random attack on the 11-year-old girl, an Australian tourist, in central London on Monday.
The girl, who was put in a headlock and stabbed eight times with a steak knife, required plastic surgery for her wounds.
Reached in Pintaru's home town of Pucioasa, around 65 miles away from the capital, Bucharest, his mother Magda Girla, said: "I suffer together with her mother and I can’t describe the pain I’m in.
"I’m also a mother and I understand what she must be going through."
She revealed more details of her son's life, telling the Mail that Pintaru had been a long-distance lorry driver for ten years, and "had no social life".
Pintaru moved to the UK about six years ago and has a four-year-old daughter, with whose mother he was in a long-term relationship.
He went back to Romania in 2022, she said, but soon returned to the UK for work, and suffered a car accident a few weeks later, which meant he had to look for a new job.
Ms Girla said she had only heard from her son occasionally while he was away.
The stabbing took place at the TWG tea shop in the heart of the tourist hotspot, in what police believe was not a terror-related attack.
As well as attempted murder, Pintaru has also been charged with possession of a bladed article.
Appearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday morning, the suspect wore a grey prison-issue sweatshirt as he appeared in the dock.
Prosecutor David Burns told the court the mother and her daughter were visiting the tourist hotspot on holiday when a man “approached the girl, placed her into a headlock, he’s then stabbed her eight times to the body”.
A local security guard, who witnesses say tackled the knifeman to the ground, told LBC: "I heard a scream, at that moment I saw there was one person, roughly (in their) mid-30s or early 30s, and he was like stabbing a kid.
"I jumped on him, held the hand in which he was (carrying) a knife, and just put him down on the floor and just held him and took the knife away from him.
"Then a couple of more people joined as well, and we just held him until the police came, it took maybe three to four minutes for the police to arrive and then they just took him into custody."
He and his colleagues gave first aid to the child before the police joined in, he said.
Mr Burns added: "In relation to the complainant – she was taken to hospital and she currently resides in hospital where she’s undergoing treatment"
"I understand that she required plastic surgery for the injuries she sustained."
They said at first they had mistakenly reported that the girl's mother, 34, was also hurt because she had her daughter's blood on her.
Pintaru was remanded in custody and will next appear at the Old Bailey on September 10.
