Terrorist could not be deported due to trial for ‘eating mattress’
THE Libyan refugee behind the Reading terror attack could not be deported as he faced trial for eating a police mattress, an inquest heard.
Khairi Saadallah fatally stabbed James Furlong, 36, David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, on June 20, 2020.
A pre-inquest review hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday heard that on July 24, 2019, Saadallah, now 29, allegedly spat at a police officer after being arrested and went on to damage a mattress.
Home Office staff emailed Thames Valley Police on May 28, 2020, to say they planned to deport him but could not “until the impending charges had been dealt with”.
Charges
But the court heard the charges – being drunk and disorderly, destroying or damaging property and assault by beating of an emergency worker – were dropped on June 1, 2020, days before he killed the three friends in Forbury Gardens.
Saadallah was handed a whole-life sentence at the Old Bailey in January 2021 after pleading guilty to three charges of murder and three of attempted murder.
Coroner Sir Adrian Fulford PC KC told the court “no relevant stone will be left unturned” during the inquest. Nick Harborne, chief executive of the Refugee Support Group, urged the court to look at evidence dating back to 2016.
He said it was then that Saadallah – who had been a child soldier in his home country – first informed the organisation that he wanted to return to Libya to “avenge the deaths of his family members” and “martyr himself”.
A further pre-inquest review hearing is scheduled to take place in September at the High Court, with full proceedings set to begin in January 2024.