Three men sentenced to life in prison for murder of Ian Ogle

Three men have been found guilty of the murder of Ian Ogle in Belfast in 2019. All three have been sentenced to life in prison.
Delivering his verdict in the non-jury trial at Belfast Crown Court, Mr Justice McFarland said he was satisfied that Glenn Rainey, 38, Walter Ervine, 43, and 41-year-old Robert Spiers were part of a group of five men who had attacked Mr Ogle.
There were cheers from the Ogle family when the verdict was announced.
The family of Ian Ogle expressed relief at the end of a “long, difficult process” after three men were found guilty of his murder in Belfast.
They also called for a “serious look” at the judicial system in Northern Ireland and described as “unfair” how long victims have to wait for a trial in the region compared with the rest of the UK.
Mr Ogle was 45 when he was beaten and stabbed 11 times just yards from his Cluan Place home in the east of the city in January 2019.
Delivering his verdict in the non-jury trial, Mr Justice McFarland said he was satisfied that Glenn Rainey, 38, from Ballyhalbert Caravan Park, Walter Ervine, 43, from Litchfield Street in Belfast, and Robert Spiers, 41, from Millars Park in Dundonald, were part of a group of five men who had carried out the attack.
The judge told the three men the only sentence he could hand down was life imprisonment.
The three defendants showed no emotion as the verdicts were read.
There were emotional scenes outside court as Mr Ogle’s family gathered together to say the Lord’s Prayer.
Mr Ogle’s daughter Toni Johnston thanked all those who supported the family since her father’s murder in 2019, the detectives involved in the investigation and the judge for bringing the case to a successful conclusion, describing a “difficult process”.
“As anyone who has witnessed the trial and heard the facts and evidence will know, it was a very complex one,” she said.
“It has taken almost six years to get to this moment and that has been a particularly difficult experience.
“The judicial system in Northern Ireland needs serious change, particularly when a crime of this seriousness has been committed.
“We believe it is unfair that victims and witnesses in Northern Ireland have to wait so long to go through this process and see justice delivered.
“I also want to emphasise that after waiting so long for a trial to take place, it took a further 10 months for it to be completed.
“In the meantime, those charged with murder and assisting offences lived in our community yards from where the crime took place.
“They were also yards from the murder victim’s family.
“The length of the wait put indefensible strains on the people directly involved in the trial as well as having a damaging effect on the wider community.
“In Northern Ireland, I believe we should have some serious conversations about why our trial process takes so much longer than in the rest of the UK.”
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