Terror suspect Khairi Saadallah had allegedly been hospitalised after falling into a severe psychotic episode following a drug binge just days after being released from jail.
Saadallah, 25, remains in police custody being questioned under terrorism laws over the horrific knife attack in Forbury Gardens, Reading, on Saturday evening, which left three dead and another three seriously injured.
Now anger over the handling of his ‘high risk’ mental health issues has grown as it emerges that the alleged spice addict was discharged from Reading’s Prospect Park mental hospital on the Wednesday before the attack, reports The Sun.
Saadallah, a Libyan given asylum in 2018, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in custody
Just days after his release from hospital – where he was not sectioned under the Mental Health Act – the Libyan asylum seeker is believed to have fallen into another psychotic episode following a drugs binge, the publication reports.
Saadallah, who sought asylum in the UK in 2012, suffered post traumatic stress disorder, with other mental health issues leading to debt, alcohol and drug addiction, and homelessness.
An official source told The Telegraph: ‘There is a pattern of his case worker saying this man has serious mental health issues and needs help and treatment, but it was not available in the community. They were desperately trying to get him the help he needed but it was just not there.’
A relative of Khairi Saadallah (pictured), 25, says the terror suspect arrived in the UK as a tourist in 2012 before claiming asylum because he was at risk from Islamic extremists due to him not leading a ‘strict religious life’ in Libya
The mother of suspected Reading terror attacker Khairi Saadallah says he should have been in a mental health unit before it is alleged he went on a murder spree
A police officer stands guard outside a cordoned off block of flats where the suspect of a multiple stabbing incident lived in Reading, west of London, on June 23, 2020
Police officers congregate outside a cordoned off block of flats in Reading, west of London, on June 23, 2020
British counter-terrorism police have been given until June 27 to question a suspect widely identified as Libyan Khairi Saadallah. Police pictured outside a block of flats in Reading
Yesterday his family claimed he had been let down by the system, with official documents revealing he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and an emotionally unstable personality disorder.
His mother, from the family home in Tripoli, Libya, claims that ‘something somewhere has gone wrong’ and has called on an investigation into her son’s contact with mental health professionals before Saturday’s attack.
It also emerged on Sunday that the refugee had been involved in the government’s Prevent deradicalisation programme.
On Friday, two days after Saadallah was allegedly released from hospital, a specialist mental health team was asked to search for him after officials failed to find him during a routine check at his home. Later that evening, he was found on a street in Reading, sources disclosed.
Saadallah is believed to have then been taken home to his council flat in the south of the town – and just hours later is alleged to have stabbed three men to death as they sat in a local park, Forbury Gardens.
Floral tributes are left at Forbury Gardens, in Reading town centre, the scene of a multiple stabbing attack which took place at around 7pm on Saturday
Flowers are placed at the entrance to the Holt School, Wokingham, Berkshire, in memory of teacher James Furlong, a victim of the terrorist attack in Forbury Gardens, Reading, on Saturday in which three people died
Witnesses said the suspect, Libyan-born Khairi Saadallah, first targeted a group of men who were sitting together and drinking in the early evening sunshine at Forbury Gardens in Reading on Saturday evening
Police tents in Forbury Gardens in Reading town centre two days ago as they investigate the crime
Police forensics officers dressed in Tyvek protective PPE (personal protective equipment) suits and wearing masks, prepare to conduct a search as they work outside the walls of Forbury Gardens park in Reading on June 22
It has emerged that the alleged spice addict was released from Reading’s Prospect Park mental hospital (pictured) the Wednesday before the attack
Several police and psychiatric nurses, known as a ‘street triage’ team run jointly by Thames Valley Police and the NHS, encountered the Libyan after an alert was raised as part of his psychiatric care, sources said.
Scientist David Wails, 49, US citizen Joe Ritchie-Bennett, 39, and history teacher James Furlong, 36, were killed in the knife attack, while three other people needed hospital treatment.
In other developments:
- Police refused to rule out the possibility it may have been a homophobic attack;
- The Home Secretary outlined plans to speed up deportation of foreign criminals, after No 10 vowed that ‘lessons will be learned’ from the attack;
- The country’s former top counter-terror police officer, Sir Mark Rowley, warned that police and security services faced a ‘wicked problem’ deciding which of the 40,000 known threats could launch a terror attack;
- Police were granted more time to question Saadallah, who was arrested on Saturday.
- The family of David Wails, the third victim killed in the Reading knife attack, said he ‘never hurt anyone in his life’, adding: ‘We are broken hearted at losing him and in such a terrible way’.
It came as a former Labour justice minister revealed in the Commons that Saadallah had been released from prison just 16 days before being arrested over the terror attack.
Maria Eagle said: ‘The person who has been arrested suspected of these offences has been reported as being of interest to the security services as a potential terrorist sympathiser and was released well before the end of his sentence from a prison – a mere 16 days before this murderous rampage took place.’
Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was unable to comment given the police investigation, but it will raise further concerns that the authorities missed opportunities to prevent Saturday’s knife attacks.
In 2018 the Home Office granted Saadallah the right to remain in the UK for five years after he was deemed to not be of concern by the government’s deradicalisation programme, reports The Telegraph.
James Antell, 25, who works for the Tory MP for West Dorset Chris Loder, was revealed as a good Samaritan who bravely rushed to help victims of the Reading attack
On Tuesday James Antell, 25, who works for the Tory MP for West Dorset Chris Loder, was revealed as a good Samaritan who bravely rushed to help victims of the Reading attack has told how he used his own shirt to try to stop a casualty’s bleeding.
The parliamentary assistant said he was left ‘shaken’ after stepping in to help those who were stabbed last Saturday night and urging them to keep breathing, while he checked over his shoulder to ensure the attacker did not return.
He said: ‘I tried my very best to identify where the injuries were on the body of the casualty and took my shirt and used it to try and apply pressure to the wounds, but the casualties were in a very, very bad way.
‘I moved to another casualty and did my best to try to identify where that wound was and apply pressure to it. I fell a little bit shaken, but my overriding thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones.’