THE INQUEST into the murder of James Furlong, Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, and David Wails has begun at The Old Bailey in London today, Monday, January 15.
They were murdered by Khairi Saadallah 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.
Now the inquest has begun, led by Judge Coroner Sir Adrian Fulford, and is expected to last six weeks, concluding on February 23.
Gary Furlong Senior is set to give a statement on behalf of the families of James, David, and Joseph ahead of the start of the inquest.
The inquest is set to examine the handling of Saadallah, as 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.
While Saadallah was subject to a preliminary investigation after security services received information about potential terrorist activities, they did not seek further action.
Judge Coroner Martyn Zeidman KC agreed that proceedings would begin in January at the preliminary hearings last year, where representatives of the victims’ families also moved to invoke Article 2.
This means that coroner must carry out an enhanced investigation considering the wider circumstances surrounding the incident, rather simply determining how a person died.
