THE ONGOING preparatory hearings for the upcoming inquest into the Forbury Gardens terror attack have revealed that deportation of a man was dropped shortly before he killed three people in Reading.
Khairi Saadallah was set to be deported to Libya, Judge Coroner Lord Justice Fulford has heard, following an arrest in July 2019.
After his arrest for being drunk and disorderly, Saadallah was charged with damaging property and spitting at a detention officer, with Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquest, explaining that he had damaged a mattress “by eating it.”
This meant that the Home Office delayed his deportation while the charges were dealt with, and instead requested that the charges were dropped in an email to Thames Valley Police on May 28, 2020.
Prosecutors dropped the charges the following day, but on June 4, just a week later, the Home Office decided that Saadallah could not be deported because of the unsafe conditions in Libya.
Six weeks later, he entered Forbury Gardens in Reading and fatally stabbed James Furlong, Joe Ritchie-Bennett and David Wails.
Nick Harborne, chief executive of Reading Refugee Support Group, said at the hearing: “I think it vital that the scope of the inquiry goes back to at least Nov 2016.
“This was one of our contact points at RSG with KSA where we became aware first hand of his potential for violence and vulnerable state of his mental health.
“It marks the point where RSG became concerned of the potential for his radicalisation, and the support for his mental health, as he started going in and out of prison; this started here, not in 2019.”
He continued: “The lessons learned need to be drawn from at least 2016, when he informed us he wanted to go home to fight to avenge the death of his family members.
“This is also the point concerns were raised and shared by the wider voluntary sector that he wanted to martyr himself.”
The board of trustees at Reading Pride released a statement that reads: “The inquest is hearing worrying evidence.
“We hope that the coroner will thoroughly investigate what happened, and that lessons will be learned that will stop a similar incident happening in future.”
Justice Fulford said at the hearing “no relevant stone will be left unturned.”
The inquest is set to go ahead next year.
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Please note: This story originally claimed that Nick Harborne, chief executive of Reading Refugee Support Group, had explained that Saadallah’s “potential for radicalisation had been apparent when Saadallah came into contact with the charity in 2016.”
This is incorrect, which has been reflected in the article above, and Mr Harborne’s full statement from the hearing has been included for clarity.
