A Libyan refugee behind the Reading terror attack could not be deported as he was facing a trial accused of eating a mattress at a police station, an inquest has heard.

Khairi Saadallah shouted “Allahu akhbar” as he fatally stabbed friends James Furlong, 36, Dr David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, in the Berkshire town’s Forbury Gardens on June 20 2020.

A pre-inquest review hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Monday heard that, on July 24 2019, Saadallah is alleged to have spat at a police officer after being arrested and went on to damage a mattress.

Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquest, said in court papers: “On that date, Saadallah is said to have attended Reading police station, spat at a detention officer after arrest, and damaged a mattress by eating it.

“He was charged, pleaded not guilty, released on unconditional bail and his trial was adjourned due to Covid.

“It appears that Saadallah was next due in court for these offences in July 2020 – after the date of the attack.”

Home Office staff emailed Thames Valley Police on May 28 2020, stating that they planned to deport Saadallah but were unable to “until the impending charges had been dealt with”.

However, other Home Office staff were arguing against deporting Saadallah as it was dangerous for him to return to Libya at the time, the court heard.

The charges – being drunk and disorderly, destroying or damaging property, and assault by beating of an emergency worker – were dropped on June 1 2020, shortly before the attack.

Mr Moss said solicitors to the inquest have requested a witness statement from the Crown Prosecution Service “addressing why the decision was made not to pursue” the charges.

He added: “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.”

Three other people – Stephen Young, 51, Patrick Edwards, 29, and Nishit Nisudan, 34 – were injured before Saadallah threw away the eight-inch knife and ran off, pursued by an off-duty police officer.

In January 2021, the killer was handed a whole-life sentence at the Old Bailey after pleading guilty to three murders and three attempted murders.

Coroner Sir Adrian Fulford PC KC told the court “no relevant stone will be left unturned” during the inquest.

Nick Harborne, chief executive of the Refugee Support Group, told the court the scope of the inquest should go back to 2016, when his organisation was first aware of “the potential of his violence and the vulnerable state of his mental health”.

Saadallah had informed the organisation that he wanted to return to Libya to “avenge the deaths of his family members” and “martyr himself”, the court heard.

Mr Harborne said: “We spent four years after 2016 trying to get some mental health support. He came as a minor, a vulnerable young person with the trauma of being a child solider.”

Mr Furlong’s father, Gary, who attended the court, said on behalf of the victim’s families after the hearing: “Our principal wish remains that lessons may be learned, and effective measures put in place to prevent others suffering the tragedy that we have endured.

“To achieve this aim, we know that any failings that caused or contributed to the deaths of James, Joseph and David must be identified.

“We have every confidence that the new judge coroner Sir Adrian Fulford and his team do so.

“We trust that everyone else involved in this inquest process will work tirelessly towards that same goal, so that the events that led to the deaths of our beloved James, David and Joseph will not be repeated.”

A further pre-inquest review hearing will take place on September 18 and 19 at the High Court, with full proceedings set to begin in January 2024.

An attacker who stabbed and killed a 29-year-old in central Paris on Saturday (May 12) night was a naturalised Frenchman born in Russia’s Chechnya region in 1997, judicial sources said on Sunday. Rough cut (no reporter narration).

A Belgian court sentenced Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam and a co-accused to 20 years in prison on Monday for trying to kill police during a shootout in Brussels in 2016.

Judge Marie-France Keutgen told the courtroom that 28-year-old Abdeslam and Tunisian Sofien Ayari, 24, had been found guilty of “attempted terrorist murder” during the shootout in March 2016.

Abdeslam is in a French prison awaiting trial for his role in the Islamic State attacks in Paris in November 2015 in which 130 people were killed. Prosecutors say he is the lone survivor of a suicide squad.

Neither he nor Ayari, who is in custody in Belgium, was present for the judgement.

Despite the absence of both accused, security was tight around the Brussels court, with heavily armed police on guard.

By the time of the shootout in the Brussels district of Forest on March 15, 2016, Abdeslam had been in hiding for four months after fleeing Paris the night his elder brother blew himself up at a cafe.

Prosecutors who accuse Abdeslam of helping organise the attacks and ferry former fighters from Syria around Europe say he, too, would have died if his suicide vest had not failed to detonate. His lawyers do not dispute Abdeslam was in Paris during the attacks.

They finally stumbled across him when, with French officers, they went to inspect a suspect apartment in Forest and then came under a hail of gunfire which wounded four of them.

After a three-hour siege ended with marksmen killing a 35-year-old Algerian called Mohamed Belkaid, police found an arms cache.

Abdeslam’s DNA found at the scene linked him to the shootout and that led to his arrest three days later in a different apartment in Brussels.

Four days after his arrest, suicide bombers attacked Brussels Airport and the city’s metro, killing 32 people. Officials believe Abdeslam had links with the bombers and that they brought forward their attack because they feared Abdeslam might reveal their plans under interrogation.

Abdeslam was present on the opening day of the trial, but refused to answer the judge’s questions.

His lawyer Sven Mary told reporters on Monday that he discuss the case with his client before determining whether to appeal.

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