Court rules Reading attacker was ‘performing religious jihad’

Prosecutors of Khairi Saadallah, 26, who killed three gay men in Reading last year, said he was “performing an act of religious jihad”, despite previous court hearings ruling out a terrorist motive. James Furlong, 36, Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, and David Wails, 49, were killed on 20 June 2020, with Saadallah admitting to all three accounts of murder. 

According to The Sun, prosecutor Alison Morgan said: “In the early evening of 20 June 2020, James Furlong, David Wails and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett were with friends sitting in Forbury Gardens in Reading. They were enjoying being able to be together on a summer’s evening in the park, as the restrictions of the first lockdown were relaxed.”

They continued: “Shortly before 7pm, they were murdered in a brutal attack by the defendant, Khairi Saadallah. In less than a minute, shouting the words ‘Allahu Akbar’ [meaning ‘God is the greatest’], the defendant carried out a lethal attack with a knife, killing all three men before they had a chance to respond and try to defend themselves. Within the same minute, the defendant went on to attack others nearby, stabbing three more people – Stephen Young, Patrick Edwards and Nishit Nisudan – causing them significant injuries.”

Morgan argued: “The defendant believed that in carrying out this attack he was acting in pursuit of his extremist ideology that he appears to have held for some time. He believed that in killing as many people as possible that day he was performing an act of religious jihad…The defendant was ruthlessly efficient in his actions. The prosecution’s case is that the attack perpetrated by this defendant was carefully planned and executed with determination and precision.”