Coroner Highlights String of Failures Before Reading Terror Attacks

LONDON—A coroner has listed a string of failures by MI5, social workers, and mental health professionals which allowed a Libyan immigrant and ISIS sympathiser to murder three gay men in a park in Reading in June 2020.

James Furlong, 36, Joe Ritchie-Bennett, 39, and David Wails, 49, were stabbed to death in Forbury Gardens in Reading town centre by Khairi Saadallah—who was facing deportation back to Libya—on June 20, 2020.

Saadallah came to Britain in 2012, having fought for Ansar al-Sharia, an Islamist terrorist group, in the Libyan civil war, and had several asylum applications rejected.

He was released from Bullingdon prison 15 days before the attack.

The inquest, which was held at the Old Bailey in London, began in January and on Friday the coroner, a retired judge, Sir Adrian Fulford, delivered his findings.

Sir Adrian, who heard from a number of MI5 witnesses, said there was evidence Saadallah held “extremist Islamist views in prison and continued to do so up to and including the events in 2020.”

Related Stories

But one intelligence report in late 2019 said there was nothing to support the idea Saadallah possessed an “Islamist lone wolf ideology.”

Criticising MI5 and Counter-Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE), Sir Adrian said, “The overall body of intelligence was not fully assessed in light of new information.”

But he went on to say MI5’s decision to close an investigation into Saadallah in 2018 was not a significant mistake and, “in the circumstances there was no realistic prospect of them preventing the attack.”

Sir Adrian said he understood “lessons had been learned” since the Reading attacks but he would be making a number of recommendations in a separate report to Home Secretary James Cleverly.

The inquest heard three other men—Stephen Young, Patrick Edwards, and Nishit Nisudan—survived being stabbed by Saadallah, who was later arrested.

Superintendent Oliver Wright, from CTPSE, told the inquest the killer appeared to be “pretty indiscriminate” in choosing his targets.

He was asked by counsel to the inquest, Nicholas Moss, KC, if homophobia could have played a part in Saadallah’s attacks.

Undated Thames Valley Police handout photo of Reading terror attacker Khairi Saadallah, issued on Jan. 15, 2024. (PA)

Mr. Wright said, “My assessment was that KS [Saadallah] targeted these victims because of where they were, not because of who they were.”

In his lengthy narrative verdict, Sir Adrian listed a string of criminal offences that Saadallah had been convicted of since 2014, which included attacks on police officers and emergency workers, possession of knives and other offensive weapons, and animal cruelty.

The coroner said Saadallah also suffered from poor mental health over the years.

In 2019 he claimed he was an “active member” of ISIS and wanted to be deported back to Libya so he could fight for them there and be “killed as a martyr.”

Sir Adrian said Saadallah had an “enduring Islamist mindset” and admitted after being arrested for the attacks, “what he had done was jihad as he saw it and he was going to paradise.”

Sir Adrian said after Saadallah’s release from prison on June 5, 2020 he was recommended for referral to mental health services but he was rejected because he did not fit certain criteria.

Joe Ritchie-Bennett, James Furlong, and David Wails, the three victims of the Reading terror attack, in undated handout photos by police. (Thames Valley Police/PA)

Sir Adrian also defended the probation officer who managed Saadallah between August 2019 and the day of the murders.

Laura Rixon broke down during the inquest and said she had no idea he had killed people and thrown bombs into government buildings in Libya and that she was “managing an unconvicted murderer.”

She told the inquest she had no knowledge of Saadallah ever “fighting” in Libya and managed him on the basis of thinking he was not a national security threat and his risk of extremism was low.

Sir Adrian made a point of praising her “diligence” and said she bore no responsibility for what transpired.

A police officer stands guard outside a cordoned off block of flats where Khairi Saadallah was arrested in Reading, England, on June 20, 2020. (Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)

Before Friday’s hearing began James Furlong’s father, Gary, said: “It is now almost four years since our boys, James, Joseph, and David were taken from us in the murderous terror attack by Khairi Saadallah in Forbury Gardens.”

“We have listened to six weeks of evidence at the inquest into our boys’ deaths. Now, finally, today is the day we have waited for since June 2020. Today we are trusting the judge coroner to give us answers about the deaths of James, Joseph, and David,” he added.

Mr. Furlong said, “Most of all, we are trusting him to make recommendations that will keep us all safer and to prevent other families from facing the pain, heartbreak, and loss that we must live with every day.”