Charges dropped against Reading terrorist days before attack because of deportation ‘misunderstanding’

Home Office wrongly told prosecutors they could deport Khairi Saadallah, court hears

Charges were dropped against a terrorist days before he murdered three people because of a “misunderstanding” over a botched Home Office attempt to deport him, an inquest has heard.

Khairi Saadallah murdered three men as they socialised in a Reading park following the relaxation of Covid restrictions in June 2020, and was jailed for life the following year.

The Libyan national, then 25, had already committed numerous violent and criminal offences in the UK, and had been refused asylum by the Home Office.

The inquests into his victims’ deaths heard that charges were dropped against Saadallah 19 days before the attack because the Home Office wrongly told prosecutors he would be deported.

At the time, he was coming to the end of his most recent prison sentence and was about to be freed from HMP Bullingdon, and the inquest will probe what may have changed if the prosecution continued.

Saadallah had been charged with being drunk and disorderly, damaging property and assaulting an emergency worker over an incident in July 2019 at Reading police station.

He allegedly spat at a detention officer after being arrested and “damaged a mattress by eating it”, but his trial was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic and was not due to take place until July 2020.

Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquests, told a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided to drop the case “on the basis that the Home Office indicated that they planned to deport Saadallah, but could not do so until those charges had been dealt with”.

The court heard that Home Office staff emailed that message to the CPS on 29 May 2020, and a senior crown prosecutor formally discontinued all charges on the next working day.

However, Mr Moss said that “at around the same time, other Home Office staff were preparing a submission not to deport Saadallah, on the basis that persons could not be returned to Libya” under internal guidance because of the ongoing civil war.

Khairi Saadallah was given a whole-life term for the Reading terror attack (CTPSE)

“Whatever the right and wrongs of that, it appears from that exchange between the CPS and the Home Office charges were dropped, due to what may be thought to have been a misunderstanding or miscommunication about the status of Mr Saadallah,” he added.

Ms Moss said that the families of his three victims, teacher James Furlong, 36, scientist David Wails, 49, and US citizen Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, were “plainly concerned with why he was able to stay in the country”.

Documents presented to Monday’s hearing show that Home Office witnesses will be called to explain Saadallah’s immigration history, the decision to grant him discretionary leave to remain in the UK, whether there was any possibility of deportation to Libya and the department’s “involvement in the decision not to pursue charges against Saadallah” before he launched his brutal knife attack.

The inquests will also be looking at how referrals to the Prevent counter-terrorism scheme were handled, the management of Saadallah in prison, probation monitoring after he was released on 5 June 2020, and the treatment of his mental health and substance abuse issues.

Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, James Furlong and David Wails, the three victims of the Reading attack (Thames Valley Police)

Mr Moss said Saadallah was known to be “impulsive, aggressive and violent”, but that professionals who were alerted to his “expression of extremist views saw it as being predominantly a mental health issue, whereas the mental health clinicians saw his condition as being a personality disorder, which was difficult to treat”.

“The risk that within that circle, opportunities may have been missed to assess and communicate his risk effectively should be considered,” he added.

MI5 and counter-terror policing witnesses are being called to give evidence on what was known about Saadallah and how any potential risk was communicated to other bodies.

A further pre-inquest hearing will take place in September, when the security services will make applications on information they want to redact from public hearings and present to the coroner in “closed” proceedings.

The full inquests, before judge coroner Sir Adrian Fulford KC, are due to start on 15 January 2024.