The victim of Monday night’s attempted beheading in Belfast has lost his left eye, a court has heard, as his attacker was named and remanded in custody for four weeks.
Stephen Ogilvie, an NHS radiographer in his 40s, lost his eye as a result of the frenzied knife attack on Kinnaird Avenue in north Belfast that left him in a critical condition and prompted a night of rioting across the city. Hadi Alodid, a Sudanese migrant, appeared at Belfast Magistrates’ Court charged with the attempted murder of Mr Ogilvie and was remanded in custody for four weeks.
The revelation that Mr Ogilvie — who has worked as a radiographer in the NHS — has permanently lost his eye adds a devastating new dimension to an attack that witnesses described as an attempted beheading, with bystanders heard screaming that the assailant was “trying to cut his head off.” Members of the public, including young father Maitiu Mág Tighearnán who grabbed a hurling stick to confront the attacker, were credited by police with saving Mr Ogilvie’s life.
The attack triggered the worst civil disorder Belfast has seen in years, with homes, buses and cars set ablaze and riots spreading to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Southampton. Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill condemned the violence as “outright thuggery,” while Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described the original attack as “sickening.”
Alodid, who entered Northern Ireland by crossing the Irish border and was later granted leave to remain in the UK, will next appear before the court in four weeks.
