Park life..

I see that the Forbury Park (Reading) killer Khairi Saadallah has been sentenced today at the Old Bailey. Thankfully he got a full life sentence, meaning he shouldn't ever see the light of day in our society again. Apparently (according to the murderer) the motivation for these killings was religiously inspired, Islamist extremism being a major influence on the mentally deranged Saadallah, although he claims to have been "part Catholic" as well (what a toxic mix!). I often hear apologists argue that religion is harmless and even beneficial, well, clearly that's a statement that needs some qualification, No doubt that the families of the three victims would have a more personal view on that.

This kind of atrocity isn't unusual of course, we see at least a few instances of it every year in the UK, it's almost part of everyone's lives here and in most Western countries now. This particular killing was particularly vicious, random and close to home, my own family have spent several Summer afternoons and evenings in that very park enjoying the various events that are held there, I wrote about the last one here, back in 2018. It's sobering when you consider how random blind chance plays such an important role in being caught up in these kinds of things, I shudder to think what that would be like. If I ever were to support the reintroduction of the death penalty in this country I think it would be for random acts of violence like this, terrorism in it's purest form.