Belfast knife attack victim lost eye, court hears, as suspect named

Updated June 10, 2026 — 9:23pm,first published June 10, 2026 — 12:36am

London: Hundreds of protesters have set fire to homes and vehicles in Belfast during a night of violent anti-immigrant riots after police charged a Sudanese asylum seeker with attempted murder over a brutal stabbing attack likened to an attempted beheading.

Police said late on Tuesday in Belfast (shortly before 4am on Wednesday AEST) that they had charged the alleged assailant with attempted murder, possession of a bladed article in a public place and threatening to kill.

New details emerged about the suspect, Hadi Alodid, 30, when he faced Belfast Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning (about 8pm AEST) and was refused bail.

The victim of the brutal stabbing, Stephen Ogilvie, 44, lost his left eye and suffered severe damage to the right eye as well as cuts to his face and back, the court heard.

The court heard Alodid had allegedly threatened to kill a National Health Service radiographer before the stabbing attack on Monday night.

He is due to appear in court again on July 8. Northern Ireland police initially described the suspect as Somali, but later said he was Sudanese.

Homes were torched and a bus was set ablaze in response to the incident, as protesters clad in black, many with their faces covered, defied police and political leaders with an eruption of anger against migrants.

The riots came one night after a graphic online video showed an assailant kneeling over a victim on a Belfast street and yelling while brandishing a knife above his head, moments before onlookers rushed to help by wielding makeshift weapons against the attacker.

One church leader said migrants in his community were targeted in their homes when rioters set fire to houses in north Belfast.

“They’re good Christian people and they’re getting put out just because they’re black,” pastor Jack McKee told the BBC.

Outrage spread online throughout Tuesday after the graphic video showed the attack on the Belfast street on Monday night, leading conservative political leaders to call on the police to reveal the ethnicity of the suspect and the details of the injuries to the victim.

The BBC reported that a crowd of 100 men kicked in doors and broke windows of homes on a street in East Belfast. Sky News showed footage of a house on fire. London’s Telegraph reported that at least three houses and a Middle Eastern supermarket had been set ablaze in the north-west of the city.

The political uproar came after a public debate about “two-tier policing” in the death of a young white man, Henry Nowak, at the hands of