Park attack terrorist ‘murdered three with knife in under minute’
A “RUTHLESSLY efficient” terrorist stabbed three people to death, one of them a former Queen’s University researcher, and injured three others in a Reading park in less than a minute, a court has heard.
Khairi Saadallah (26) shouted “Allahu akhbar” during the violent spree on June 20 last year.
The defendant, of Basingstoke Road in the town, has pleaded guilty to three murders and three attempted murders.
He was appearing at the Old Bailey in London yesterday for the start of his sentencing.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan QC said Saadallah, originally from Tripoli in Libya, aimed to kill as many people as possible in the name of violent jihad.
He launched the attacks in Forbury Gardens as numerous people were enjoying the summer evening after the first lockdown restrictions in England were relaxed.
The dead included scientist David Wails (49), a former researcher at Queen’s.
Also murdered were history teacher James Furlong (36) and US citizen Joseph Ritchie-bennett (39).
Their friend Stephen Young, and Patrick Edwards and Nishit Nisudan, who were sitting in a nearby group, were injured.
Opening the facts of the case, Ms Morgan said: “In less than a minute, shouting ‘ Allahu akbar’, the defendant carried out a lethal attack with a knife, killing all three men before they had a chance to respond and try to defend themselves.
“Within the same minute the defendant went on to attack others nearby, stabbing three more people — Stephen Young, Patrick Edwards and Nishit Nisudan — causing them significant injuries.
“The defendant was ruthlessly efficient in his actions.
“The prosecution’s case is that the attack perpetrated by the defendant was carefully planned and executed with determination and precision.
“The defendant believed that in carrying out this attack he was acting in pursuit of his extreme ideology, an ideology he appears to have held for some time.
“He believed that, in killing as many people as possible that day, he was performing an act of religious jihad.”
Saadallah arrived in the UK as an asylum seeker in 2012, having fled the civil war in his home country.
The court heard that Saadallah, who was refused asylum, had previously been involved with militias which had been part of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi and was pictured handling weapons, including firearms
After living in Britain he had been repeatedly arrested and convicted of various offences, including theft and assault, since 2013.
He developed an emotionally unstable and anti-social personality disorder, with his behaviour worsened by alcohol and cannabis misuse, the court was told.
In 2017 he was in jail at HMP Bullingdon at the same time as prominent radical preacher Omar Brooks, who is associated with the banned terrorist organisation Al-muhajiroun.
Ms Morgan said Saadallah was observed to be keen to associate with Brooks and was “impressionable and volatile”.
The prosecutor said his desire to associate with the known Islamic extremist in 2017 was significant, as it showed the ideology that he was exposed to in Libya remained of interest to him three years before the attacks in this case.
The sentencing, before Mr Justice Sweeney, is expected to go on for two to three days.
‘He was ruthlessly efficient in his actions... he believed that he was performing act of religious jihad’