A MAN ACCUSED of the murder of his former partner Mary Ward in Belfast last year has been sent forward for trial to the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.

Ahmed Abdirahman, 31, who is accused of murdering the young mother on September 25 at her house on Melrose Street in south Belfast, was arrested in Dublin two weeks after her death.

Abdirahman, originally from Somalia, was remanded in custody and subsequently refused bail as prosecutors prepared the case against him.

The case was listed before Judge Mark O’Connell at Cloverhill District Court today.

Judge O’Connell acceded to a request by the State to grant a return for trial order, sending the case forward to the Central Criminal Court.

A date for the next hearing has yet to be scheduled, but it will take place during the next court term, which commences on April 28.

Legal aid was granted following an application by Aisling Ginger Quinn BL on behalf of the defendant’s solicitor, Wayne Kenny.

An earlier bail hearing was told that the accused’s former partner died as a result of a “laceration to her neck” at her Belfast home.

Abdirahman’s most recent address was Kinlay House, Dame Street, Dublin 2.

It was alleged the accused turned up at Dublin’s Mater hospital on September 26, a day after Ms Ward, 22, was last seen alive.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) commenced a murder probe after her lifeless body was found on October 1 in her house. It soon became a joint Garda-PSNI investigation.

Detectives attached to the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) arrested Abdirahman on October 9 in Dublin city centre and charged him.

Detective Sergeant James King had said Abdirahman’s reply to the charge was “Not guilty”.

The bail hearing was told the accused originally came to the Republic in 2019 and had residency status due to a family reunification process with a half-sibling with citizenship in Ireland.

He had no prior convictions.

Under the Criminal Law (Jurisdiction) Act 1976, a person can be charged and tried in the Republic for offences allegedly committed in Northern Ireland.