CCTV captured the moment the victim thought he’s been punched in the back and legs but instead suffered three knife wounds
A warehouse operator who stabbed a man on the dancefloor of a Belfast nightclub in a revenge attack has been jailed for 27 months.
Judge Natalie Pinkerton told Mohamed Abdul Hakeem that he would spend an identical period on supervised licence on his release from custody.
The 20-year-old, of Airfield Heights in West Belfast, had previously pleaded guilty to a single charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Belfast Crown Court heard on Friday that on the evening of Sunday, August 31, 2024, the victim was out for the evening with some friends at Ollies nightclub in Waring Street.
It was the prosecution case that at around 2.20am the following morning the defendant approached his victim from behind and appeared to punch him in the back, before striking him a further three times to the lower back and legs.
A prosecution lawyer told the court that the incident was caught on CCTV cameras in the nightclub.
The victim had sustained three stab wounds: One to his back, and two to his lower left leg.
Judge Pinkerton heard the victim approached security who called the police and an ambulance. The injured party was taken to hospital where he received three stitches in the wound to his back and three stitches to one of the wounds in his left. The other leg wound did not require stitches.
The prosecution lawyer said police attended the nightclub around 2.32am and noticed blood on the dance floor and in anteroom where the victim had been taken by security staff to await the ambulance.
Officers viewed the CCTV of the incident at the nightclub and then returned to seize it later that day, September 1.
A detective constable who reviewed the CCTV recognised the assailant as Mohamed Abdul Hakeem. She had dealt with him four weeks earlier after he too had been stabbed. CCTV from around the area was examined which showed the defendant making his way to Ollies and then leaving on foot.
Hakeem was arrested a few days later on September 3 and was interviewed in the presence of his solicitor. He accepted that he had gone to Ollies nightclub on Saturday night/Sunday morning but made no comment on whether he knew the victim and if he had stabbed him.
In an agreed basis of plea document between the prosecution and defence, it was accepted that Hakeem was the victim of a previous knife attack from the man he had stabbed. The defendant and his friend were in a flat when they were attacked and he needed 15 stitches for his injuries.
Hakeem said on the evening in question he had gone into town for the night to meet a friend and when he went to Ollies he saw his attacker was present.
He accepted that he lifted a piece of broken glass and attacked the man on the dancefloor in what was described as a “spontaneous and short-lived” incident.
In written defence submission from barrister Sean Mullan, he accepted the seriousness of the offence and that the custody threshold had been passed.
“The background certainly does not excuse the defendant’s conduct, but it does provide important context to what happened,” wrote Mr Mullan.
“We ask the court to look at this incident through the lens of a young male who had been attacked himself, who was an 18-year-old teenager at the time and all the maturity that goes with that. He has no previous convictions.”
He outlined how Hakeem had come to Northern Ireland from Somalia at the age of six because of the civil war in his home country.
Mr Mullan’s submissions added that Hakeem was in a stable relationship with his partner and works full time as a warehouse operative, working 12 hour shifts.
Passing the determinate custodial sentence of 54 months, Judge Pinkerton said: “This was a revenge attack with a weapon, whereby three sets of stab wounds were occasioned, meaning three blows at least, which could be seen in a busy, crowded nightclub.”
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