Memorial paying tribute to men killed in Reading terror attack unveiled
Reporter Natalie Verney was at the unveiling on Tuesday evening (20 June)
A permanent memorial has been unveiled for the three men killed in Reading's Forbury Gardens terror attack.
Three years since the attacks, the memorial has been installed to remember James Furlong, Joe Ritchie-Bennett and David Wails.
They were stabbed to death by Khairi Saadallah on 20 June 2020. Three other people were injured in the approximately minute-long rampage in Forbury Gardens before Saadallah threw away the eight-inch knife he used and attempted to flee.
In January 2021, the 26-year-old was handed a whole-life sentence at the Old Bailey after pleading guilty to three murders and three attempted murders.
James Furlong, from Liverpool, was head of history and government and politics at the Holt School in Wokingham and had a long-term partner.
Dr David Wails was a scientist who lived in Reading.
Joseph Ritchie-Bennett was a US citizen who had lived in the UK for 15 years and worked for a pharmaceutical company in Reading.
Friends and family gathered at Forbury Gardens for a private unveiling of the memorial at the band stand. The gardens were closed to the rest of the public.
There was then a memorial service at St Laurence Church - also a private event.
At 6.50pm, members of the public attended a one-minute silence held at Forbury Gardens along with a flower-laying ceremony.
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