Southport killer’s father tells public inquiry his son ‘would have outbursts if somebody disagreed with him’

The father of the Southport attacker said his son would have outbursts if someone disagreed with him.

Alphonse Rudakubana, asked how frequent the outbursts were, said: ‘It was random… it depends on who is talking to him and what you say.

‘For example if they are talking about subjects and they don’t agree and they both have strong opinions, he would get angry and have the outburst.

‘It could be twice a day.’

He said Axel would bring up ‘things from the past’ and accuse his father of hitting him.   

The brother of the Southport killer also today revealed that his younger sibling was motivated to murder children because he wanted to ‘hurt society’.

Dion Rudakubana, 21, said his brother, Axel, 17, had never expressed any ‘concerning views’ about women and young girls but he thought children were ‘very valuable’ and represented ‘society’s future.’

He told the public inquiry investigating the teenager’s crimes: ‘[He thought] it would hurt society particularly badly if children were to be harmed.’

Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were killed and ten others left seriously injured when Axel went on the rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance club with a knife he ordered off Amazon last July.

Dion’s comments, made to the hearing at Liverpool Town Hall, are the first time any motivation for Axel’s actions have been revealed.

He told the inquiry that he immediately suspected his younger brother, who had not left the house for more than two years, was ‘potentially’ going out to carry out an attack when he left the house, on July 29.

Dion revealed his mother, Laetitia Muzayire, 53, showed him packaging for a knife soon afterwards that she had found in the washing machine.

The Southport victims, from left, Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar

A court sketch of Axel Rudakubana, who was jailed for a minimum of 52 years earlier this year

But she and his father, Alphonse, 49, reassured him Axel was simply going for a walk and no one called the police.

Dion admitted that his father had been more apprehensive and had warned his eldest son to be careful around Axel when he picked him up from university and brought him back to the family home, in Banks, three days before the attack.

But although he was ‘worried’ when Axel left the property, around 11.10am on July 29, Dion said he ‘trusted his parents’ because he had not been living consistently’ with his brother.

‘Both of them appeared to be significantly more calm than I would expect,’ Dion said.

Richard Boyle, counsel for the inquiry, asked Dion: ‘Your worry was he wasn’t going out to go on a walk, but was going out to carry out an attack.’

He replied: ‘Initially, potentially yes.’

The inquiry has heard that Axel had been increasingly socially isolated after being expelled from school, aged 13, in October 2019, and by the time of the attack he had not been to lessons or left the family home for more than two years because he was ‘fearful’ and ‘paranoid’.

Asked why neither he or his parents called police or went to look for Axel after they realised he had left the house on the day of the attack armed with a knife, Dion said: ‘The sentiment was that this was a positive step, this was him battling a fear.

‘I didn’t believe he intended to harm anyone and thought that, if he was carrying a knife, it was to protect himself, not to harm others.’

Dion said he went into Southport with friends but when he heard that a number of people had been stabbed he immediately began to fear his brother was involved.

However, he insisted his suspicions were just a ‘what if’ and he was much more worried about his parents, who had been struggling with Axel’s violent outbursts and hiding knives from him for five years.

He said he believed the ‘threat’ from Axel was ‘consistently’ within the family home and insisted there was ‘no indication’ he would stab strangers.

But Mr Boyle pointed out that he had previously told police that Axel thought it ‘logical’ to stab someone when he was caught with a knife on a bus, in March 2022, and the risk to the general public was real.

‘It was logical for him to go and stab someone because of his fears but I had no indication of any such situation,’ Dion said. ‘The consistent risk to life was within the home, it had existed for three years so my feeling at that point was entirely focused on that alone.’

Yesterday Dion told the inquiry that Axel’s violent outbursts increased after he was expelled and that he was ‘scared’ he would kill his father, Alphonse, 49.

Mr Rudakubana is due to give evidence later today.

The inquiry, in Liverpool, continues.