THE mother of a man suspected of stabbing an 11-year-old girl in Leicester Square has said she feels “deeply sorry for what happened“.
Ioan Pintaru, 32, was charged with the attempted murder of the youngster, who will need plastic surgery for face, neck, shoulder and wrist injuries.
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His mother, Magda Girla, said she last spoke to Pintaru, who goes by his middle name Alexandru, on the morning of the attack on Monday.
Pintaru was arrested hours later after the child – an Australian tourist in the UK – was stabbed eight times with a steak knife near the Lego store in London’s famous West End.
When asked what she thought about the incident, Mrs Girla told MailOnline: “Please send this message to everybody, I’m deeply sorry for what happened to that little girl.
“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.”
The devastated mum-of-two spoke from her home in Pucioasa, around 65 miles north west of the capital Bucharest.
Her son moved from there to England around six years ago, it is understood, and had been in a long term relationship with the mother of his four-year-old daughter.
In May 2022, Mrs Girla said, Pintaru returned home to Romania.
He returned to the UK in May for work, but was injured in a road traffic accident a few weeks later, which forced him to look for a new employer.
The full-time carer for her elderly father said she only sporadically heard from her son after this, not knowing where he lived.
Pintaru, a long-distance lorry driver, had “no social life” according to Mrs Girla.
He was described as homeless when he appeared before District Judge Michael Snow at Westminster Magistrates Court this week.
He is charged with attempted murder and possession of a bladed article in a public place.
The court heard Pintaru pounced on the child grabbing her in a headlock before stabbing her eight times in the face, neck, shoulder and wrist.
She will need plastic surgery for her injuries, District Judge Snow was told.
The incident could have proved fatal but for the quick thinking of a shop security guard who jumped on top of the assailant, disarming and restraining him until police arrived a few minutes later.
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Police initially thought the girl’s mother had also been stabbed but it later emerged she had been covered in her daughter’s blood as she tried desperately to help her.
Pintaru was remanded in custody and is due to appear at the Old Bailey on September 10.
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