Witness to Ian Ogle murder said victim was struck up to 50 times with a flick bat

A man who was standing metres from Ian Ogle when he was attacked yards from his east Belfast home said he saw the deceased being struck up to 50 times with a flick bat, a court heard.

The 45-year old father-of-two was beaten and stabbed close to his Cluan Place home on the evening of Sunday January 27th, 2019.

It is the Crown's case that Mr Ogle was attacked by a group of five men.

Jonathan Brown (38) from Whinney Hill in Dundonald and 45-year old Mark Sewell of Glenmount Drive in Newtownabbey pleaded guilty to murdering Mr Ogle earlier this month and were handed Life Sentences.

Glenn Rainey (37) whose address was given as Ballyhalbert Caravan Park, Walter Alan Ervine (42) from Litchfield Street in Belfast and 41-year old Robert Spiers from Millars Park in Dundonald have all denied the murder charge and are currently standing trial in Belfast.

During the third day of the non-jury trial, a number of statements were read - including one made from a family friend who witnessed the fatal attack.

In his statement, the witness said he was a friend of Ian Ogle's son Ryan and he knew the family well.

He said that on the evening of Sunday January 27th, 2019 he was out walking his dog when he saw 'Ogie' standing on the footpath at Cluan Place.

After walking over to Mr Ogle, the dog-walker said he was chatting to another man who he didn't know.

The witness said he stood chatting to Ogie and the second man for a few minutes, then he noticed a group of males with their faces covered running towards them.

He said: "I was thinking something was wrong. I said to Ogie and the other man something like 'yo, what is that?

"Ogie then turned round to face up towards Templemore Avenue. All of the people running at us then got Ogie.

"It seemed like there was a wee bit of hestitation but then one of them hit Ogie. I can't remember where that landed but then they all started beating him.

"By the time they started hitting him, I was about two or three meters from where they were attacking him.

"He was beaten a bit while he was standing up. He seemed to be trying to shield himself with his arms but they beat him to the ground."

In his statement, the witness said he also saw one of the attackers striking Mr Ogle with what he described as flick bat.

He said: "I saw this person with the flick bat hit Ogie many many times - at least 30, 40, 50 times to the head, face and shoulders.

"When he was on the ground, he hit him with any space to hit him."

The dog-walker said at this point he told the man with the flick bat to stop as that was enough.

The statement continued: "Another one of the men  attacking Ogie had a long, skinny, metal rod-type thing.

"I saw Ogie being struck with this weapon over and over.

"While they were attacking him, Ogie was crying out, like 'ah', in pain. I didn't hear him crying out names or anything. His cries didn't make then stop."

The witness estimated the group attack lasted around a minute before one of the gang said 'right, come on lads, camera' which he thought was a reference to a camera on a piece wall.

"After he said this, all but one of the gang ran off in the direction of Templemore Avenue."

He said the man who stayed behind "repeatedly stamped on Ogie's head with his foot.

"Ogie's head was on the ground and this male was stamping on his head with force. This man stamped on Ogie's head at least 20 times easy. It looked like he was doing it as hard as he could.

"By this stage, Ogie wasn't saying anything. The others were calling for the man stamping on Ogie to 'come on'.

"The man kept stamping on him but eventually after about 30 seconds or so he ran in the same direction as the others."

He said he started shouting and asking Mr Ogle if he was okay, then he then ran the short distance to Ian Olge's home to raise the alarm with his son Ryan Johnston.

The witness added: "I blattered the front door. Ryan stuck his head out the top window and I shouted up at him from the street 'quick, quick, quick, they've beaten your Dad.'

He said he told Ryan his Dad has been beaten by a gang of masked men and that "Ryan was out of his house in a minute. We both ran up to where Ogie was still lying."

The witness said he called Ian Ogle's partner Vera Johnston at 9.21pm to tell her he had been beaten up, was in a bad way and wouldn't wake up.

Whilst this was happened, the witness said Ryan was "on the ground calling his Dad's name and trying to shake him to wake him up."

He said Mr Ogle's partner and daughter Toni Johnston arrived at the scene within minutes and said they had just seen five masked men running then getting into a black car.

In his statement, the witness added that before the ambulance arrived, he saw injuries on Mr Ogle's back and arm.

He said: "His back looked sliced. It looked like he had two stab wounds to one of his arms. There was blood everywhere, all over the street, and his  face was just mangled and all red with blood."

In a statement made by a relative of Ms Johnston's, she said she saw "five men running and knew something was wrong" as she drove along the Albertbridge Road.

She said that after turning into Cluan Place, she saw a male lying on the ground with wounds to his back.

In her statement, the woman said: "I could see his blood running into a drain and at that point thought he was dead."

Mr Justice McFarland also heard statements from two paramedics who tended to Mr Ogle.

One paramedic described seeing a crowd of people "screaming and shouting" at the "crazy" scene and a man lying on the ground.

He said: "I knew straight away from experience that he was dead."

The paramedic said Mr Ogle was placed into the back of an ambulance were advanced life support was conducted whilst he was being transported to the Royal Victoria Hospital.

In his statement, he said: "I remember the blood was pumping out of him and I saw the stab wounds on his shoulder.

"He never showed any signs of life while I was with him."

His colleague in the Ambulance Service also provided a statement regarding the events of Sunday January 27, 2019.

He recalled seeing Mr Ogle lying in a "puddle of blood" and said: "When I looked at him, I thought he was already dead, that he had already bled to death."

This paramedic added that he observed "multiple" stab wounds on Mr Ogle's back and that there were "too many for us to count with any accuracy."

Mr Ogle was taken to the RVH, where life was pronounced extinct at 10.12pm.

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