A man has pleaded guilty to stabbing three men to death as they enjoyed a summer evening in a Reading park in what police said was a terrorist rampage. At the Old Bailey on Wednesday, Khairi Saadallah admitted to the killings on 20 June this year. He will be sentenced next month when his lawyers will deny the attacks were motivated by a Jihadist ideology. Saadallah, who came to the UK from Libya in 2012 as an asylum seeker, had an extensive history of mental health issues and had twice come to the attention of counter-terrorism officials. However, he had been deemed not to pose a danger of staging an attack. In a pre-trial hearing Saadallah, 26, admitted three counts of murder and three of attempted murder. His victims were three men enjoying a summer evening in Forbury Gardens during the first national lockdown. They were James Furlong, 36, a history teacher, scientist David Wails, 49, and American pharmaceutical worker Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, who all died after being stabbed by Saadallah as they sat on the grass at about 7pm. Richie-Bennett and Furlong died after single wounds to their necks. Wails was stabbed once in the back. Saadallah also stabbed and wounded their friend Stephen Young and two other men who were sat nearby, Patrick Edwards and Nishit Nisudan. Witnesses claimed Saadallah shouted “Allahu Akbar ” during the rampage, which lasted just two minutes. Prosecutors say it was “without warning or provocation”. After the attacks, Saadallah threw away the knife and fled the park, pursued by an off-duty police officer. He was arrested minutes later. He will be sentenced following a hearing next month, where a key issue will be whether the motivation for the attack was terrorism, as the prosecution alleges. After the guilty pleas Mr Justice Sweeney, a judge specialising in high-profile terrorism cases, told the court that Saadallah denied substantial preparation or planning and claimed an ideological cause was not a motivating factor. While murder carries a mandatory life sentence, a terrorist motivation could see a longer minimum term and prosecutor Alison Morgan QC said a whole life sentence, meaning Saadallah would never be released, could be merited. Saadallah has a history of mental health issues and had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and an emotionally unstable personality disorder. He had also volunteered to help at a Christian church and reportedly at one point converted to Christianity. He had convictions for 11 crimes from June 2015 to January 2019, and had been imprisoned for 25 months in October 2019 but the sentence was reduced on appeal. Among his past offences were racially aggravated assault, knife crimes and criminal damage. In November 2018 he abused a police officer as a “slave” and spat in her face while being detained under the Mental Health Act after fears he was attempting suicide. In 2018 the Guardian understands he was assessed by Prevent, the government’s programme to counter Islamist extremism, and found to have no clear ideology. He was deemed to need additional mental health support. In the same year, the Libyan national was granted asylum in the UK. MI5 also at one point had Saadallah under investigation as a person who might travel to Libya “for extremist reasons”. That claim was found to lack credibility and he was assessed as being far from the legal threshold for investigation. After the attacks tributes were paid to the victims. Martin Cooper, who is chief executive of LGBT+ charity Reading Pride, said Furlong and Ritchie-Bennett were “great supporters” and members of the community. “Their loss is a tragedy to so many people,” he said. “It was always a pleasure drinking and socialising and just being in their company.”