A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of 25-year-old Ademola Giwa, who died after being stabbed in the neck this week.

John Titiloye, 26, of Mac Uilliam Crescent, Tallaght, was remanded in custody at Cloverhill prison pending a further hearing, to allow for the collection of the book of evidence.

Detective Garda Michael McGrath, of Tallaght Garda Station, told the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin that he arrested the accused at 10.16am on Wednesday.

Titiloye was charged with murder at 10.50am and told the arresting officer he was “not guilty”.

Judge Brian O’Shea granted the accused legal aid, after the court heard that he has no income and is supported by his parents.

A further hearing will take place on Thursday August 19 at 10am.

Mr Giwa died close to his home in Mac Uilliam Road in Tallaght, after being stabbed in the neck on Tuesday.

Titiloye was arrested in Dundalk, Co Louth, on Wednesday morning.

Mr Giwa was stabbed at around 7.15pm in the Mac Uilliam Road area on Tuesday.

A second man, aged in his 50s, was also attacked during the incident and was treated in hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

Fianna Fail councillor for Tallaght Charlie O’Connor said the community was shocked by the “terrible and sad incident”.

He said: “I want to offer my sympathy to the family and friends affected as well as the community.

“People are deeply shocked by what has happened to the young man.

“He was well known and had been involved in the local Mark Celtics (football club).”

“I want to encourage people to co-operate with Tallaght gardai.”

In the wake of the killing, Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond repeated his call for community initiatives to tackle knife crime.

The Dublin Rathdown TD published figures showing that 999 knives have been seized by gardai this year alone.

He said Mr Giwa’s death “shows how knife crime continues to cast a tragic shadow across our streets and our communities”.

He added: “1,057 people have been charged with knife crimes in 2021, this is on top of 2,286 people in 2020.

“The statistics show many knives are being seized from younger people. Between 2005-2019, 44% of knife seizures were from those aged between 12-23.

“I have heard too many stories of parents, teachers and siblings finding a knife in someone’s school bag, under their bed or in their school locker.”

He added: “To tackle this, we need to expedite the plans to tackle knife crime at source.

“Programmes such as knife amnesties, mentorships, education programmes in schools, youth diversion services and youth training programmes have had huge success in Scotland where they saw homicides reduce by more than half.

“By implementing these programmes, we can stop this crime before it happens, saving lives and transforming communities.”

Mr Richmond said funding for the programmes could come from a proposed Community Safety Innovation Fund, which would put cash seized from criminals into crime-stopping initiatives.

More than 16 million euro in cash was seized from criminals in 2020.

He added: “We owe it to those affected by knife crime and organised crime to expedite the establishment of the Community Safety Innovation Fund and put it to use in tackling the growing scourge of knife crime.”