Leicester Square stabbing: Suspect charged with 11-year-old girl’s attempted murder appears in court

A man has appeared in court charged with attempted murder following the stabbing of an 11-year-old girl in Leicester Square .

Police rushed to the London tourist hotspot on Monday morning following reports of an incident near the TWG Tea shop , which is beside the Lego store and in front of the M&Ms store, at around 11.30am.

The 11-year-old victim was found with stab wounds. She was taken to hospital where her injuries, while serious, were assessed as non-life threatening.

Ioan Pintaru, 32, was charged with attempted murder and possession of a bladed article and appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday morning, wearing a grey prison-issue sweatshirt. The court heard the 32-year-old is a Romanian citizen of no fixed address.

Prosecutor David Burns said the child and her mother were in Leicester Square as tourists when she was stabbed eight times with a steak knife. He added: “I understand that she required plastic surgery for the injuries she sustained.”

It was initially believed that the girl’s mother, a 34-year-old woman , was also hurt – however, it was later confirmed that blood from her daughter’s injuries had been mistaken for injuries of her own.