Khairi Saadallah fatally stabbed friends James Furlong, 36, Dr David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, on June 20 2020.
The Reading terror attacks in which three men were murdered in a park were “probably avoidable” and contributed to by the failings of multiple agencies, a coroner has said at the conclusion of inquest proceedings.
Libyan refugee Khairi Saadallah shouted “Allahu akhbar” as he fatally stabbed friends James Furlong, 36, Dr David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, on June 20 2020 in the town’s Forbury Gardens.
Three other people – Stephen Young, Patrick Edwards and Nishit Nisudan – were also injured before Saadallah threw away the 8in (20cm) knife and ran off, being chased by an off-duty police officer.
Since arriving in Britain in 2012, Saadallah was convicted of various offences including theft and assault.
Judge Coroner Sir Adrian Fulford said the deaths “probably would have been avoidable” if the mental health service had given “greater priority to stabilising KS and securing access to long-term psychological therapy”.
He added that if his “extremist risk had been better analysed”, Saadallah would probably then have been recalled to custody the day before the attacks, meaning they would never have happened.
Judge Coroner Fulford said the deaths of the three men were “contributed to by the failings of multiple agencies”.
