Belfast police charge man after ‘brutal attempted beheading’

Warning: Graphic content

London: Police have charged a Sudanese suspect with attempted murder after a brutal stabbing attack left a man fighting for his life in a Belfast hospital from wounds likened to an attempted beheading, setting off a political storm over crime and migration.

A graphic online video showed the assailant kneeling over the victim and yelling while brandishing a knife above his head, moments before onlookers rushed to help by wielding makeshift weapons against the attacker.

As outrage spread online after the attack on Monday night (Tuesday AEST), conservative political leaders called on the police to reveal the ethnicity of the suspect and the details of the injuries to the victim, described as a man in his 40s.

Northern Ireland police initially described the suspect as Somali but later said he was Sudanese and said he was in custody on suspicion of attempted murder. Police said late on Tuesday in Belfast (at 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. The man, 30, is due to appear in Belfast Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

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 a Sikh assailant in Southampton last December, with footage showing the police had initially treated the victim as a suspect.

Hours after the Belfast attack, populist political leader Nigel Farage called on police to name the attacker.

“What happened in Belfast last night is horrific,” said Farage, the head of political party Reform UK.

“The authorities must reveal the identity and status of the attacker immediately. The public are entitled to the truth.”

A rival right-wing politician, Rupert Lowe, said he had watched the footage of the attack and wanted the police to guarantee “full transparency” including the immigration status of the suspect.

Lowe, an MP who left Reform to lead his own party, Restore, linked the Belfast attack to the Southampton case and said the solution was to deport migrants and bring back the death penalty.

“I have had enough. The British people have had enough,” Lowe said on X.

“We do not have to live like this – there is another way. Death penalty, mass deportations, end mass immigration.”

The remarks escalated the political row over the attack as mainstream media outlets covered the case and the graphic video spread online, heightening concerns about crime.

A briefing on crime rates by the House of Commons Library found that there were 53,000 offences involving knives and similar sharp instruments in England and Wales in the year to March 2025. It said this was down by 1.2 per cent on the previous year.

The latest figures from the Police Service for Northern Ireland found there were 533 cases of violent crime involving knives and sharp instruments in the year to March, compared to 530 the previous year. The case numbers have fallen from 668 in 2022, 632 in 2023 and 608 in 2024.

With some groups planning public rallies against migration, leaders from the major political parties in Northern Ireland held a joint press conference to call for calm.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill, from Sinn Fein, urged people to reject the calls for public protests or hatred against migrants.

“I don’t want to see any person living in fear, and we need to say no racism, no to hatred, no to sectarianism that is out there in our society,” she said.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, from the Democratic Unionist Party, acknowledged that many people wanted change to the migration rules.

“People legitimately need to be reassured that their concerns are not only being listened to but taken seriously,” she said.

Authorities fear the anxieties will spark riots like those last June after two Roma teenagers were charged with the attempted rape of a teenage girl in Ballymena.

Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable Jon Boutcher emphasised that the suspect was in custody and that public protests could escalate to disorder and lead to arrests.

“Do not give the man in the video any more infamy,” he said of the suspect.

The police said the suspect arrived in Belfast in February 2023 after travelling by bus from Dublin. He had flown to Ireland from Paris after travelling from Sudan.

He claimed asylum in Belfast and was given leave to remain in the UK from September 2023 for a period of five years.

The UK Home Office confirmed this in a statement saying the suspect was granted refugee status in 2023.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had no tolerance for the “abhorrent” scenes in Belfast.

“The horrific attack in Belfast last night is sickening,” he said.

Conservative Party MP and shadow home secretary Chris Philp linked the case to the migration debate and called for the release of information about the suspect.

“Last night’s brutal attempted beheading in Belfast is appalling. The government must ensure full details about the suspect’s nationality and immigration status are released. Total transparency is required,” he said.

“If it turns out this man is an illegal immigrant it would provide further evidence that the government’s lack of border control is endangering the public.”

But the suspect was granted leave to remain when the Conservatives were in power in 2023, and the ministers in authority at the time have since left the Conservatives to join Farage at Reform.

Lowe blamed the immigration minister at the time, Robert Jenrick, and the home secretary at the time, Suella Braverman. Both defected to Reform in January.

Police Service of Northern Ireland assistant chief constable Ryan Henderson described the attack as “brutal” and said police were seeking to determine the motive.

“I want to reassure the local community that we are treating this attack with the utmost seriousness,” he said.

Hundreds of people rioted in Southampton on June 2 after the release of video evidence in the Nowak case showing police initially dismissed the young man’s statement that he had been stabbed and handcuffed him as a suspect.

Police initially told Nowak, 18, he would be arrested for assault. He died of his wounds soon after the stabbing on December 3 last year.

His killer, Vickrum Digwa, 23, was convicted of murder using a 21cm blade he carried as part of his Sikh faith. He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years.

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