Coroner: Reading murders by refugee ‘avoidable’

A CORONER blasted police, prison and health officials yesterday for a litany of blunders that left a Libyan refugee free to kill three men in a terror attack.

Khairi Saadallah, 29, pictured, stabbed three friends – James Furlong, 36, Joseph RitchieBennett, 39, and scientist David Wails, 49 – in a Reading park, just 15 days after his release from prison on licence.

Coroner Sir Adrian Fulford said: ‘It is my view, without relying on the potentially distorting view of hindsight, that these three deaths were avoidable.’ His verdict left the victims’ families reeling and ‘sickened’ by the ‘failings of the state’.

The violent offender, who had a long history of criminality and mental illness, was due to be deported to his home country, but the process was delayed and later dropped due to the war in Libya. Days later, on June 20, 2020, he carried out the brutal attack.

A number of ‘significant failings’ in intelligencesharing meant Saadallah was not immediately recalled to prison, the coroner said.

Saadallah had repeatedly indicated that he had a ‘terrorist mindset’, a capacity to kill and ‘serious psychiatric problems’, he added.

Sir Adrian claimed the deaths ‘probably would have been avoidable’ if the mental health service had given ‘greater priority to stabilising Khairi Saadallah and securing access to long-term psychological therapy’. But police, prison and health services all failed to recognise the risk he posed.

Saadallah had declared he was a member of Islamic State and that he wanted to kill himself and ‘take others with him’.

Mr Furlong’s father, Gary, said: ‘Our boys did not stand a chance. There were clear warnings of his extremist risk and becoming a lone-wolf attacker. We have been sat in court demoralised, bewildered and disillusioned by the agencies’ failure to effectively communicate, assess the risk and protect the public.’