Inquiry into Southport knife rampage blames authorities, killer’s parents
Protesters gather outside Liverpool Crown Court in Liverpool in January 2025 where then-18 year-old Axel Rudakubana was sentenced to 52 years in prison for the Southport child killings. File photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA-EFE
April 13 (UPI) — The official inquiry into the killings of three young girls in a knife rampage in Southport in 2024 by teen Axel Rudakubana ruled Monday that he could have been stopped but for the “catastrophic” and “irresponsible” failures of authorities and his parents.
Summing up at the end of a 9-month-long phase 1 of the public inquiry, the chair, former Appeal Court judge Sir Adrian Fulford, said the attack could have been prevented if Rudakubana’s parents had reported what they knew and law enforcement, child and mental health agencies had reacted correctly to the risk he was known to present.
Sir Adrian said it was “highly likely” that Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, would still be alive if Rudakubana’s parents had spoken up about the lethal weapons being delivered to their home and agencies had taken responsibility, instead of engaging in unacceptable buck-passing.
Rudakubana, who seriously wounded eight other children and two adults in the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop on July 28, 2024, is serving a 52-year prison sentence.
“History simply would have taken a different course,” Sir Adrian said, adding that there could have been a number of different outcomes, the most likely of which was that Rudakubana would have been taken into child protective custody or detained in a correctional or other secure facility.
In a statement, Sir Adrian called for urgent government action on the failings of state bodies at both the organizational and individual levels.
“Far too often, AR’s ‘case’ was passed from one public sector agency to another in an inappropriate merry-go-round of referrals, assessments, case-closures and ‘hand-offs,” he said.
Known to authorities since 2019, Rudakubana was referred to a counter-terrorism “deradicalization” program three times and in March 2022 told police he wanted to stab or poison someone after he was found on a bus armed with a knife. Police drove him home and did not arrest him.
There were also missed opportunities to look into Rudakubana’s “chilling” online activities, through which he fueled his obsession with violence via “degrading, violent and misogynistic” material, leading him to assemble a weapons cache, including knives, a crossbow, petrol bombs and ingredients to make ricin.
In his 760-page report, Sir Adrian called for the country’s “failing” multi-agency approach to dealing with problem young people to be scrapped and replaced with a dedicated agency exclusively tasked with handling high-risk offenders like Rudakubana.
Different agencies failed to share information and no one appeared to be clear which, if any, of the agencies was the lead body in the case.
The report also stated how Rudakubana’s actions in the preceding years leading to the Southport atrocity were wrongly attributed to autism due to “misunderstanding” of the condition, “leading to inaction and a failure to address dangerous behaviors.”
“Numerous systems that should have provided oversight, assessment and protection were ineffective or inadequately used. Some failed outright. The consequences were catastrophic,” said Sir Adrian.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who ordered the inquiry, vowed to “act on the recommendations” once the inquiry was complete.
In a statement, Lancashire Police Chief Constable Sacha Hatchett said she was “extremely sorry” officers had not arrested Rudakubana in the incident in March 2022 and that “we did not adequately assess the risk he posed.”
Hatchett added that Lancashire Police “fully accepted” the changes recommended by the inquiry.
Lancashire County Council acknowledged the findings and apologized.
“We are deeply sorry for the failures identified and for the part we played in the systemic shortcomings that preceded the attack in Southport. We know that no words can ease the grief of the families who lost loved ones, or the pain of those who were injured and traumatized,’ said chief executive Mark Wynn.
“Since 2019, we have made substantial changes to our safeguarding practice, and the chair’s findings will inform our continued improvement. We are committed to implementing all recommendations directed to us in full,” added Wynn.
Chris Walker, the attorney representing the dead girls’ families, said the system was “not fit for purpose and must undergo fundamental changes to reduce serious risks to society.”
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