Axel Rudakubana, 18, was jailed for a minimum of 52 years after he fatally stabbed three children at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in Southport on July 29 last year
A leaked Home Office report has allegedly exposed that counterterrorism police did not believe Axel Rudakubana, the Southport killer, was “in danger of being radicalised”.
According to the Sunday Times, the Prevent learning review will criticise officers for failing to adequately consider the 18 year old’s fixation on extreme violence.
Rudakubana was sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in prison on Thursday, one of the longest minimum terms on record, for the fatal stabbing of three children – Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven – at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in Southport on July 29 last year.
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He also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of eight other children, as well as the class instructor, Leanne Lucas, and businessman John Hayes.
The leaked report comes as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has already announced a public inquiry to investigate any “missed opportunities” to identify Rudakubana’s murderous intentions and ordered a “thorough review” of the Prevent referrals. In the Sunday Times, she stated that the review will focus on individuals “obsessed with school massacres” and “Islamist extremism”.
She added, “Where individuals are suspected to be neurodiverse, interventions should not stop because they are awaiting assessments, ignoring any risks they might pose,” Rudakubana had been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder by local health authorities.
The Home Secretary has highlighted a “serious problem” where cases fall short of the Prevent threshold, but other services like social care and mental health fail to intervene.
Rudakubana’s actions had been flagged to the Government’s anti-terror scheme Prevent three times prior to the attack, with six additional police calls logged about him. He had attacked another student with a hockey stick, searched online for details of the London Bridge terror incident using school computers, and was known to carry a knife on a bus and into school before committing the Southport murders, reports the Mirror.
When officers searched Rudakubana’s house post-attack, they discovered knives, archery arrows, and ricin—a biological toxin 6,000 times deadlier than cyanide. Evidence indicated that the equipment needed to produce such a substance was purchased in 2022.
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