Reading terrorist had assault charge dropped weeks before attack, court told

Charges against a man who was later responsible for the Reading terror attack were dropped due to “miscommunication” between the Home Office and Crown Prosecution Service, a pre-inquest review has heard.

Khairi Saadallah murdered three men in a Reading park on 20 June 2020 as coronavirus restrictions were eased. Saadallah allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he stabbed friends James Furlong, 36, David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39.

A judge determined it was a jihadist attack and he was jailed for life in 2021.

A pre-inquest review hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Monday heard that on 24 July 2019, Saadallah was alleged to have spat at a police officer after being arrested and to have damaged a mattress “by eating it”.

Saadallah had been charged with being drunk and disorderly, damaging property and assaulting an emergency worker over the incident at Reading police station, but these charges were dropped on 1 June 2020, less than three weeks before the stabbings.

Read more: The Guardian (UK)