A Sudanese asylum seeker appeared in Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday charged with attempted murder after an attack on a local man that triggered the worst civil disorder Northern Ireland has seen in several years, drawing condemnation from political leaders and the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, which was meeting in Maynooth as the violence erupted.
Hadi Alodid, 30, was filmed attempting to decapitate Stephen Ogilvie, a disabled man in his forties, with a kitchen knife on the evening of June 8 in the Kinnaird Avenue area of north Belfast. Alodid had stabbed Ogilvie in the eyes, and he remains in hospital with life-threatening injuries. Members of the public confronted the suspect before police arrived; one man fought him off with a hurling stick. When Alodid appeared in court on Wednesday, it emerged that Ogilvie had lost his left eye. Alodid was remanded in custody. The Home Office confirmed he was a Sudanese refugee with a legal residence permit valid until 2028, having arrived via Paris and Dublin in 2023.
