Judge blasts delays over Mary accused

NO progress has been made in preparing a psychiatric assessment on a Somali national accused of murdering young mother Mary Ward - three months after a Central Criminal Court judge said the delay in the case could not go on any longer.

- BY RYAN DUNNE

Ahmed Abdirahman, 31, originally from Somalia and with a last address at Kinlay House, Lord Edward Street, Dublin, is accused of murdering his former partner on September 25 last year at her house on Melrose Street in south Belfast.

Last June counsel for the defence, Oisin Clarke BL, said there were a number of issues with the case, with the accused's mental fitness to plead to be determined by the court.