The Belfast ‘knife attack victim’ was tortured, doused in aftershave and set on fire by a drug dealer in a vicious attack in a Scottish flat 25 years ago.
On Monday night, Stephen Ogilvie, 44, lost his left eye and was slashed in the neck and back in the alleged violent knife attack in Belfast, for which Sudanese asylum seeker Hadi Alodid, 30, has been charged.
But back in 2001, Mr Ogilvie was victim to a savage attack by drug dealer David McLeave at a flat in Livingston, having previously moved to Scotland from his homeland in Northern Ireland.
He had been staying with McLeave when the thug, then aged 21, gave Mr Ogilvie the date rape drug GHB and burned him between the toes with a lit cigarette.
McLeave then stripped his unconscious victim and doused him in aftershave before setting him alight.
Mr Ogilvie woke up to find his head and groin engulfed in flames, while sadistic McLeave recorded the sickening assault on video.
Fearing for his life, Mr Ogilvie fled back to Northern Ireland where he told authorities of his terrifying ordeal and how he was forced into a car by the drug dealer’s associates, Barry and Paul Campbell.
McLeave was jailed for 14 years in April 2003 after a High Court trial in Edinburgh.
Stephen Ogilvie, 44, the Belfast ‘knife attack victim’, was tortured in an appalling ordeal in which he was set on fire and abducted by a drug dealer in 2001
Drug dealer David McLeave, aged 21 at the time of the attack, was jailed for 14 years for the sadistic assault on Mr Ogilvie
At the time, Mr Ogilvie told the court: ‘I am terrified and my nerves are shattered,’ the Daily Record reported.
McLeave’s accomplices Paul Campbell, then aged 20, Thomas Irvine, 21, Edward Lindsay, 23, and Lee Kingham, 21, were also jailed for drug offences.
Barry Campbell, then aged 21, was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the abduction of Mr Ogilvie and for possessing a rifle without a licence.
The criminal gang claimed links to the Belfast wing of the Ulster Volunterr Force (UVF) – a loyalist paramilitary group.
Lord Hardie said the case highlighted ‘the evil associated with the trade in controlled drugs’.
He told the court: ‘The lives of many people were adversely affected by the actions of this gang from Northern Ireland who sought to try and control the drug trade in the Calders area of Edinburgh and, to do so, took over the lives and homes of the people who lived there.’
Mr Ogilvie’s stabbing has led to major unrest in Belfast over the two nights since the alleged attack.
The city burned on Tuesday evening as a violent mob took to burning houses believed to be occupied by migrants. A sinister hit list of these homes was then being circulated on X on Wednesday.
Cars and buses were set on fire as flaming bins were pushed at lines of riot police on both nights.
Wednesday evening saw police firing rubber bullets at demonstrators and the deployment of a water cannon to keep the rabble at bay as they threw bricks, bottles, fence posts and fireworks at officers.
Fires burn in the road surrounding the PSNI’s armoured Land Rovers on the Antrim Road
On Tuesday night, Lendrick Road in east Belfast was engulfed in flames after fires leapt from cars to houses
A derelict bungalow was also set alight near the clashes.
Mr Ogilvie’s family said the sharing of false information was ‘deeply distressing’ and pleaded for it to stop in a statement issued through police this evening, adding they were left ‘feeling disgusted’ by the recent chaos.
Mr Ogilvie’s family said in a statement they were ‘devastated by the horrific attack’ but pleaded for calm.
‘We are aware of the tensions and talk of protests following this incident,’ the statement said.
‘We want to make it absolutely clear that overnight unrest is not welcome, and peaceful protest is the only way forward.
‘We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country, including in our healthcare system and hospitality sector and we depend on them to make our country work.
‘We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility.’
The family added that they were ‘completely devastated’ by the attack and said the unrest was ‘not welcome’.
Alodid appeared before Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday morning charged with the attempted murder of Mr Ogilvie, with threats to kill an NHS radiographer and with possession of a knife.
The unrest came in response to the brutal knife attack on Belfast’s streets on Monday night
Hadi Alodid, 30, has been charged with attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie with threats to kill an NHS radiographer and with possession of a knife. He has been remanded in custody
Alodid, who appeared in court via video link, made no reply to the charges when they were put to him through an Arabic interpreter.
The court heard Alodid said ‘I’ve killed someone, I don’t know if they are dead’ while in hospital receiving treatment for a hand injury and told medical staff ‘I will kill you’.
District Judge Stephen Keown refused bail after hearing police concerns there could be ‘significant public disorder’ if he was released due to ‘strong public feeling’ about the incident.
