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'They should have stopped him': Brother of Reading knife attacker says he told police he was spiralling out of control... as it emerges the murderer was a child soldier in Libya with a sickening lust for drugs and violence

A Libyan refugee was facing life behind bars yesterday after dramatically confessing to killing three men in a knife rampage weeks before he was due to face trial.

Khairi Saadallah, 26, should have been in prison for an appalling catalogue of violence.

But he was freed early on appeal to embark on a stabbing spree just 16 days later, killing three men and injuring three others who were sitting in a Reading park during the lockdown.

Following his surprise change of plea yesterday when he admitted for the first time that he carried out the knife attack in June, there were questions about whether authorities missed opportunities to prevent the appalling attack.

Victim: Scientist David Wails, 49Victim: US citizen Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39

Victims: Scientist David Wails (pictured left), 49, and US citizen Joseph Ritchie-Bennett , 39, who were killed in a stabbing spree at a park in Reading during the lockdown

It can now be revealed that a brother of the violent drug addict, who was hooked on cannabis and Spice, had called police warning about his deteriorating behaviour just days before the attack.

Officers went to check on Saadallah hours before he launched his rampage after an alert was raised as part of his ongoing psychiatric care at a nearby mental health hospital.

Several police and psychiatric nurses, known as a ‘street triage’ team, run by Thames Valley Police and the NHS, came across him on the street around midnight, but he managed to convince them he was well.

What they may not have known at the time was that while behind bars Saadallah had chatted with fellow inmates about making bombs.

He told fellow inmates that he ‘wanted to kill people’, and he is said to have boasted that he had fought both for and against Islamic State.

The revelation will raise fresh questions about the Home Office’s handling of Saadallah’s asylum application. He arrived in the UK as an asylum seeker in 2012, having fled the civil war in Libya in North Africa. 

He was granted five years’ leave to remain in this country on humanitarian grounds in 2018 despite an appalling history of violence, racking up convictions for 11 crimes between June 2015 and January last year.

In 2019 Saadallah was flagged to MI5 and the Government’s anti-extremism programme Prevent. 

He briefly crossed the Security Service’s radar as someone who ‘may have aspired to travel overseas’ to engage in terrorism. He was investigated as a ‘lead’, but intelligence officers decided he did not meet the threshold for a full investigation and was not a national security risk.

Saadallah was subsequently assessed by mentors in the Prevent scheme, but he was no longer involved with Prevent at the time of the attack as officials did not consider him to be a terror threat.

Victim: History teacher James Furlong, 36. Saadallah stabbed the men in rapid succession aiming for the head, back and neck, inflicting catastrophic injuries

Victim: History teacher James Furlong, 36. Saadallah stabbed the men in rapid succession aiming for the head, back and neck, inflicting catastrophic injuries

Instead he was directed to mental health support before being jailed last October for breaching a suspended jail term imposed for racially aggravated assault, criminal damage and affray. When his sentence was cut from 25 months to 17 months by the Court of Appeal on account of his mental health issues, Prevent did not re-establish contact.

Last night, a family member, who did not wish to be named, blamed the authorities for not providing adequate support for Saadallah’s long-standing mental health problems.

‘I feel that both the Libyan and British authorities failed him when it came to protecting him considering the state he was in,’ he said.

Just 16 days after he was freed, Saadallah launched his terrifying rampage at Forbury Gardens in Reading, lasting just two minutes. He shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘victory on infidels’ as he stabbed random victims. History teacher James Furlong, 36, scientist David Wails, 49, and US citizen Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, were sitting in the sunshine on June 20.

Saadallah ran towards them stabbing the men in rapid succession aiming for the head, back and neck, inflicting catastrophic injuries.

He also chased their friends Stephen Young, and Patrick Edwards and Nishit Nisudan sitting nearby, who were stabbed in the back, hands and face as they fled. He was overpowered by police minutes later.

Yesterday, when he appeared at the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing ahead of his trial, Saadallah dramatically changed his plea to guilty to three counts of murder and attempted murder. Sentencing was adjourned until the week of December 7.

Libyan child soldier with a sickening lust for drugs and violence 

By Emine Sinmaz, Andy Dolan and James Tozer for the Daily Mail

Khairi Saadallah boasted about his love of guns and his bomb- making skills – and proudly shared pictures of himself posing with a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle.

The Libyan refugee arrived in the UK in 2012 after fighting against former dictator Muammar Gaddafi as a 15-year-old child soldier.

The 26-year-old – who calls himself K Thug – lived in Manchester and Bury, before settling in Reading, where he racked up convictions for carrying a knife, racially aggravated assault and criminal damage. He was jailed for battery in 2017 and bragged to a fellow inmate that he could build a bomb using skills he picked up in Libya.

Deadly pose: Khairi Saadallah was proud of his time fighting in Libya as a 15-year-old child soldier and would show off pictures of himself with guns

Deadly pose: Khairi Saadallah was proud of his time fighting in Libya as a 15-year-old child soldier and would show off pictures of himself with guns 

The former prisoner, who served time alongside the killer at HMP Bullingdon in Oxfordshire, said Saadallah was a ‘heavy’ user of ‘Zombie’ drug Spice.

The ex-inmate, who asked not to be named, said: ‘His nickname in prison was Libya, because that was where he was from. We were on the same wing, B1, and I remember one day we were talking on the spur a section of the prison about general things and he suddenly started talking about bomb-making.

‘He told me he could teach me how to make a “TNT” – that was the word he used. I asked him how he knew about stuff like that and he told me he picked it all up in Libya. I was really shocked, it just came from nowhere.’

An ex-friend, who knew Saadallah when he lived in Bury, said he gave the impression he was ‘not right in the head’. He said the murderer loved smoking cannabis and was obsessed with gangsta rap music and throwing parties.

The friend said: ‘Khairi said he’d been involved in the fighting in Libya and he’d had to leave because there was a risk of him being killed.

‘He seemed proud of his time fighting, he would show off pictures of himself posing with guns. He liked telling stories about the war, he said it was a good life. I think he said he was fighting against Gaddafi. He liked to call himself “K Thug”. He loved gangsta rap music like Tupac Shakur, he called himself a thug, he’d say things like “F*** the police”.’

But he said Saadallah appeared to be ‘unstable’ with his arms showing evidence of self-harm.

Despite his string of convictions, Saadallah is said to have struck up a relationship with a British woman and converted to Christianity in order to marry her.

A woman who lived with him for five years told the Daily Mail she was shocked by his actions.

Aftermath: Police tents pictured in Forbury Gardens after the Reading attack in June this year

Aftermath: Police tents pictured in Forbury Gardens after the Reading attack in June this year

Shortly after the Reading killings, the woman, who did not want to be named, said: ‘I’ve spoken to him nearly every day since he came out of prison and nothing indicated this. His family are just in complete shock as am I. We can’t believe that Khairi would do something like this.’

Saadallah’s brother, who asked to remain anonymous, said the war in Libya had left his brother traumatised. A family source revealed that the Saadallahs had previously enjoyed close ties with the Gaddafi family before the regime collapsed in 2011. The wealthy family, who lived in a whitewashed gated home overlooking the sea in the Andalus district of Tripoli, were said to have been friendly with the despot’s playboy son, Saif.

Saadallah’s brother said: ‘Khairi fought against Gaddafi in 2011 in Benghazi – when he was just 15 – and after the war was over he went to the UK. He did have some psychological problems, mainly as a result of his experiences in 2011.’

A 2019 Court of Appeal judgment said Saadallah had a history of mental health issues, debt and homelessness, as well as alcohol and substance misuse.

The document showed that he had six previous convictions for 11 crimes between June 2015 and January last year.

He was jailed for 25 months and 20 days last October for a string of crimes but the sentence was later reduced to 17 months.

Another judge who sentenced him noted that Saadallah suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and a personality disorder, but added that he kept on committing ‘deeply unpleasant, violent offences’ despite numerous agencies trying to help him.

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