AN 18 year old youth who was stabbed to death in north Belfast in the early hours of Saturday morning was almost certainly the victim of a sectarian attack.
John Joseph Molloy, of Taunton Avenue, in the Antrim Road area, was found lying in a pool of blood at Lansdowne Road at 12.30 a.m., just yards from his home. He had been stabbed many times in what police described as a vicious and horrific attack.
The youth was believed to have been on his way home from an entertainment venue in the area, and local people suggested that he was either followed from the nightspot by his killer or ran into a gang looking for a random target.
The murder comes six weeks after the killing of Belfast tennis star, Gareth Parker (23), outside a lounge bar in the same vicinity of the Antrim Road. A 19 year old man has been charged with the manslaughter of Mr Parker.
The streets off the Antrim Road are mainly mixed residential.
The RUC carried out an inch by inch search of the murder scene at the weekend, but no weapon has been found.
Police said they were anxious to speak to witnesses, particularly taxi drivers who were in the area after midnight.
They also wanted to find a group of young people, both males and females, who are believed to have been in the area around the time of the killing.
In a further appeal last night, the RUC asked a person who made a 999 call on Saturday night to contact the Incident Room at Antrim Road police station.
SDLP and Alliance Party public representatives in the Antrim Road area said local residents had been extremely shocked at the recent killings. They called for RUC patrols to be stepped up in the area at the closing time of local entertainment spots.
The sustained and frenzied attack on John Molloy, who suffered up to nine stab wounds, had the hallmarks of a random sectarian killing.
A number of other apparent sectarian murders of Catholics in recent months remain unsolved, including that of 28 year old Belfast bank official, Niall Donovan, who was found with stab wounds and head injuries in Dungannon on June 23rd, and the taxi driver, Michael McGoldrick, who was shot dead in his vehicle in Co Armagh on July 8th.
A post mortem was carried out at the weekend on the body of John Molloy. His father, Mr Pat Molloy, in a statement issued through local parish priest, Father Martin Magill, has urged witnesses to help police.
"I would ask people, if they know anything, to come forward," said Mr Molloy, who added that his son had been popular and well liked in the area.
Meanwhile, a local man had his arms and legs broken in what is believed to have been an IRA punishment beating in the Catholic Ardoyne area of Belfast yesterday.