The boss of a knife retailer which sold a ‘fearsome’ Black Panther machete to the Southport attacker has accepted he had ‘no curiosity’ about who he was supplying.
Joseph Wheeler, managing director of Knife Warehouse – which sells hunting knives, pocket knives, swords and machetes online – made the admission this morning in an appearance before the ongoing public inquiry into the knife attack.
He also accepted he had no idea what customers’ ‘intentions’ were – except for paying attention to orders from ‘gang areas’.
The seller denied that it was ‘pretty offensive’ to claim that the machete, modelled on weapons used by the Gurkhas, was for agricultural use or fishing and said to him it was ‘just a product’.
Axel Rudakubana murdered three schoolgirls and injured eight girls and two adults in a horrendous rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Lancashire town on July 29 last year – using a kitchen knife bought from Amazon.
The inquiry heard how some 10 months earlier, he was able to purchase another weapon, a Black Panther kukri machete with a 16.5 inch blade, from Knife Warehouse in October 2023, when he was 17 using ID belonging to a much older man.
Under UK law, it is illegal to sell knives to anyone under 18.
Giving evidence before the inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall today, Mr Wheeler, managing director of Knife Warehouse, said the website had probably sold more than 100 machetes in 2023, although he said they no longer stocked them.
Joseph Wheeler, managing director of online supplier Knife Warehouse, gives evidence
Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, who were murdered
Inquiry chairman Sir Adrian Fulford asked: ‘Is it your evidence that those machetes your company sold were in your view all going to be used by whoever bought them to cut vegetation?’
Mr Wheeler replied: ‘I couldn’t tell you what their intentions were, to be honest.”
Asked if he had ‘any curiosity at all’ about who was buying the items and why they wanted them, Mr Wheeler said he paid particular attention to ‘gang areas’.
Sir Adrian said: ‘When it comes to it, you don’t actually really have any curiosity about who you are selling these to?’
Mr Wheeler replied: ‘I suppose not, sir.’
Counsel to the inquiry, Nicholas Moss KC, asked why the knife which Rudakubana bought was entirely black in colour.
Mr Wheeler said: ‘I’ve no idea. That’s just how they came. Black seems to be the most popular colour.’
Mr Moss said: ‘A Black Panther Kukri machete with a completely black silhouette, it might be thought, is named and branded in a way to make it look as ferocious a weapon as possible, is that fair?’
Mr Wheeler replied: ‘Maybe so. I never thought about that at the time or I didn’t think of it in that way.”
The inquiry heard when making the purchase, Rudakubana used a driving licence which belonged to a man who was in his 60s and living in Uxbridge as age verification.
Mr Wheeler said he believed the ID was genuine.
Court sketch of Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana, jailed for a minimum of 52 years
Asked if it ‘rang alarm bells’ that the order was being delivered to Banks, Lancashire, more than 200 miles away from the address, he said: ‘I can’t remember because it was two years ago, but I didn’t spot anything or don’t remember anything at the time.’
He said the company, based in Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, now asked customers for proof of address as well as ID when verifying that they were over 18.
The inquiry was shown photos of the package sent to Rudakubana, including a postage label which said “age verification” and “over 18 only”.
Mr Moss said Royal Mail, who delivered the parcel, had done checks and it appears the package was received by Rudakubana’s father, Alphonse.
The packaging did not advise that it contained a bladed item, which Mr Moss said was a legal requirement at the time.
He asked: ‘You did not meet your legal duty in that respect in terms of the delivery, would you agree?’
Mr Wheeler replied: ‘Well this is the first time I have seen this parcel but it appears not to be on there, yes.’
The inquiry will hear more evidence relating to online knife sales this afternoon.
Rudakubana was jailed in January for a minimum of 52 years after he admitted the murders of Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, Bebe King, 6, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, as well as attempting to murder 10 others – eight children plus dance teacher Leanne Lucas and businessman Jonathan Hayes.
The inquiry continues.