He asked UK to take him in after fighting Gaddafi
TRAUMATISED by the civil war in Libya, Khairi Saadallah fled to the UK in 2012. He claimed his moderate views put him at risk of Islamist extremists back home and he was eventually granted asylum in 2018.
He settled in Reading where his older brother Aymen had married a British woman and had two children.
One of eight siblings, whose wealthy father back in Libya is said to have been an antiques dealer, Saadallah was remembered as a ‘sweet, kind’ teenager by a family source.
But the 25-year-old – who calls himself ‘Khairi Thug’ on social media – quickly became ‘very troubled’ and started getting into fights.
Last night a close family member, who did not want to be named, told the Mail that Saadallah had been seeing mental health experts at a local hospital.
The relative said he had gone to Prospect Park Hospital as recently as last week.
‘He’s very well known to the team at Prospect Park,’ they added, saying of the community: ‘We are very shocked and shaken up by it, it’s a very peaceful place and we all know each other. We just don’t know why this has happened.’
A cousin of Saadallah’s in Libya said he had converted to Christianity in recent years, adding: ‘He started going to church and had tattoos all over his body including a cross on his arm. I haven’t had contact with him since that time.’
Friends said Saadallah and his brother Aymen had been left scarred after fighting against former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
A former neighbour of Aymen’s in Reading said: ‘Aymen got to a point where he couldn’t deal with his brother.
‘Khairi stayed with him a lot. Aymen said you need to go home [back to Libya]. Both had fought there apparently. They were the ones against Gaddafi as I understand it. They always said bad things about him. Aymen was suffering from PTSD because of the war.
‘Khairi was very troubled. It was like Aymen had become the dad. They were chalk and cheese. One day Khairi came out of his brother’s flat with a cricket bat threatening a group of guys that were bullying him. They’d shouted things at him like “terrorist” and I had to pull him off them.’
They said the Libyan was often seen wearing a blue Kappa tracksuit and cap near his £81-a-week council-owned studio flat.
A friend, Keiron Vernon, 26, said Saadallah – whom he called ‘K’ – was a ‘normal’ man he would spend time with in the park drinking whiskey.
He said he last saw him at around 12.30am on Friday, adding: ‘There was no hint that anything was amiss then. I’m totally shocked at what he has been accused of doing because he seemed so normal.’
Neighbours said Saadallah moved into the flat, on the outskirts of Reading town centre, about a year ago. One added: ‘The majority of the time he hasn’t been here. There was always lots of banging and stuff like that. He even chucked a TV off the balcony. I had to tell him to keep his noise down. I believe he has mental health problems. He used to have a key worker who would come and do his shopping for him.’
The suspect’s next- door neighbour Mohamed Seliman, 29, said the Libyan appeared ‘troubled’ hours before the attack. Mr Seliman said he went out on Friday evening and returned three hours later, at midnight, and saw Saadallah on the landing.
He added: ‘He was on the stairs, his eyes were closed and his head was leaning on the handrail. He looked deep in thought, but he answered normally when I spoke to him, so I wasn’t concerned (about him). I asked him what he was think-
ing about but he did not tell me. He was there for three hours, until I came home and went to sleep.’
Saadallah had been staying at another temporary accommodation block run by Reading Borough Council in Coronation Square. A woman who gave her name only as Donna remembered him living in one of the top-floor flats, where he once ‘screamed abuse and threatened’ her for drinking cider on the footpath outside. She added: ‘He told me to “F off” and became very upset at me drinking in the street. He told me to put the drink away.’
Faraj Ali, a trustee at the Reading Refugee Support Group, said Saadallah had turned up there one day last year and been abusive to staff. He had been seeking help, according to Mr Ali, but began shouting at them.
He said: ‘People in the Libyan community knew him because of this. His behaviour was scary and we were very scared by him.
‘Sometimes we would find people at the centre who came to us were angry because of their experiences, but Khairi was much more troubled.’