Three Men Sentenced to Life for 2019 Murder of Ian Ogle in Belfast

The non-jury trial concluded with a guilty verdict for three men involved in the brutal killing, part of an ongoing local feud.

Ian Ogle, a 45-year-old father of two, was beaten and stabbed 11 times near his home in east Belfast in January 2019 during a 30-second attack by five men.
The convicted men—Walter Ervine, Glenn Rainey, and Robert Spiers—were sentenced to life imprisonment, with their minimum tariffs to be set in early 2025.
The judge described the murder as a 'classic joint enterprise case,' emphasizing that all five attackers intended to cause serious harm, even though only one used the fatal knife.
Evidence included mobile phone activity, the discovery of a murder weapon linked to Spiers, and the defendants' attempts to leave Northern Ireland shortly after the crime.
The killing stemmed from a feud between two factions in east Belfast, with tensions escalating after an earlier altercation involving Ian Ogle’s son.