THE INQUEST into the murder of James Furlong, David Wails, and Joe Ritchie-Bennett has concluded after more than three months of hearings at The Old Bailey in London today, Friday, April 26.
The three men were murdered by Khairi Saadallah, who also injured three others, in Forbury Gardens in June 2020, for which Saadallah was convicted in January 2021.
Following the loss of Saadallah’s appeal against a whole-life sentence in October 2021, an inquest into the incident was launched.
Representatives of the victims’ families also moved to invoke Article 2, which means that the coroner must carry out an enhanced investigation considering the wider circumstances surrounding the incident, rather than simply determining how a person died.
The inquest began on Monday, January 15, to examine the handling of Saadallah, led by Judge Coroner Sir Adrian Fulford.
Preparatory hearings revealed that due deportation was dropped shortly before he killed the three men, all from Reading.
He was set to be deported to Libya following an arrest for being drunk and disorderly but was charged with damaging property and spitting at a detention officer.
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.
He had also previously been convicted of a number of offences between 2013 and 2019, and was known to associate with a prominent radical preacher linked with the proscribed terrorist group Al-Muhajiroun while imprisoned.
Before moving to the UK in 2012, there was evidence he had spent time as a soldier with the rebel militia during the civil war in Libya in 2011.
Six weeks later, he entered Forbury Gardens in Reading and fatally stabbed David Wails, James Furlong, and Joe Ritchie-Bennett.
The inquest has heard from the CEO of Reading Refugee Support Group (RRSG), Nick Harborne, as the charity had come into contact with Saadallah before the terror attack in June 2020.
Speaking at the inquest, Mr Harborne gave evidence showing that authorities had been warned repeatedly about the potential for violence and concerns about his mental health.
He explained that Saadallah had approached RRSG in September 2012, when he attended a drop-in session held by the charity.
He was seeking information about claiming asylum in the UK, and also told support workers that he had been a child soldier while in his native Libya.
Then in November 2016, Saadallah told support workers at another session that he wanted to return to Libya to fight, causing concern at the charity about his mental health.
Saadallah left the meeting abruptly and subsequently assaulted two members of the public, for which he was then imprisoned.
Mr Harborne explained that the charity notified both health officials and probation officers that Saadallah was at risk of radicalisation while in prison, with the potential to carry out a terrorist attack.
These warnings were made multiple times, including just days before the attack took place in Forbury Gardens.
An email shown in court showed that Mr Harborne wrote to NHS Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group, explaining that Saadallah had been “let down” by authorities.
It explained: “Prevent, probation, social services, the community mental health team, and the rest of us have all let him down.
“I am fearful if he doesn’t get the right support for his trauma whilst in prison there could be disastrous consequences.”
During the inquest, Mr Harborne agreed that he felt nobody wanted to take responsibility for how to deal with Saadallah.
Saadallah subsequently associated with a prominent radical preacher linked with the proscribed terrorist group Al-Muhajiroun while imprisoned, the pre-inquest heard last year.
While Saadallah was subject to a preliminary investigation after security services received information about potential terrorist activities, they did not seek further action.
The Judge Coroner Sir Adrian Fulford gave his conclusion at the Old Bailey on Friday, April 26, saying there had been a number of issues.
“It is at least possible that the failure to provide long-term therapy, at least from 2016, meant that Saadallah failed to achieve the level of stability that would have avoided him finally (settling) on jihad as the solution to his turmoil,” he said.
He said long-term therapy would have provided a real potential to ” reduce his aggressivity, impulsivity and substance abuse, along with his offending, between 2015 and 2019”.
Sir Adrian concluded that the deaths of James, Joe and David “would probably have been avoided if, first, the mental health services had given greater priority to stabilising Saadallah and securing access to long-term psychological therapy.
“Had they done so it is at least possible that the attack would have been prevented by the reduction of Saadallah’s aggressivity, impulsivity, substance abuse, and extremism, although the effect on extremism is more difficult to determine.
“Second, if his extremist risk had been better analysed, Saadallah would probably then have been recalled to custody on June 19, 2020, meaning these attacks would never have happened”.
Sir Adrian indicated within his findings that the evidence heard gave rise to concerns that future deaths could occur if further action is not taken.
He therefore intends to issue Prevention of Future Deaths reports setting out these concerns to Berkshire Healthcare NHS FT, Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, The Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, The Secretary of State for the Home Department, and The Secretary of State for Justice.
He hopes to send the reports within the next three weeks.
