What we know about Southport public inquiry as minister says 'no stone should be left unturned'

'Grave questions' need to be answered about how opportunities were missed to intervene in the case of Axel Rudakubana, the government says.

Tributes are seen outside the Town Hall in Southport, England, Aug. 5, 2024 after three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club the week before. (AP Photo/Darren Staples, File)
Tributes are seen outside Southport's Town Hall days after the fatal stabbing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. (AP)

"No stone should be left unturned" as part of the public inquiry into the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, the chancellor has said.

"It is absolutely essential we learn lessons, not just to provide understanding for the families, but to stop anything like this happening ever again," Rachel Reeves told Sky News.

Eighteen-year-old Axel Rudakubana was jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years for the murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, last July. He was not given a whole-life order because he was 17 when he carried out the attack.

After his sentencing it emerged Rudakubana was referred three times to the government's anti-terror programme Prevent. There were also multiple calls to police about Rudakubana's behaviour, including a number from his parents.

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Yahoo News UK looks at what we know about the public inquiry so far and the killer's contact with the authorities before the attack.

Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine were all killed in the Southport attack (Merseyside Police/PA)
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine were all killed in the Southport attack (Merseyside Police/PA)

Home secretary Yvette Cooper announced the public inquiry on 20 January, the day after Rudakubana unexpectedly pleaded guilty to the charges against him.

She said multiple agencies had contact with Rudakubana in the years before the murders and knew about his history of violence, but "they completely failed to identify the terrible danger that he posed".

While the exact terms of reference will be set out at a later date, Cooper said the inquiry would examine the "grave questions about how this network of agencies failed to identify and act on the risks", as well as the "wider challenge of rising youth violence and extremism".

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Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has suggested it will have a wide remit, pledging "nothing will be off the table" and that the events in Southport "must be a line in the sand".

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves speaks to the media about the Office for National Statistics GDP stats for October during a visit to the Darwen Banking Hub in Darwen, Lancashire. Picture date: Friday December 13, 2024. (Photo by Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)
Rachel Reeves wants Prevent's definition of terror to be looked at after the stabbings in Southport. (PA)

Cabinet colleague Rachel Reeves has said she would like the inquiry to establish what Prevent regards as terror.

Despite multiple referrals to the programme, Rudakubana was deemed to not be motivated by a terrorist ideology or pose a terrorist danger and therefore didn't meet the bar for intervention.

"Just because you don't have an ideological motive doesn't mean you can't be a mass killer and incredibly dangerous," Reeves told Sky.

Given what has emerged about Rudakubana, the role of Prevent and how it functions is likely to be at the heart of the inquiry.

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Rudakubana's first referral came in December 2019, after the then-13-year-old researched US school shootings during an IT class.

In February 2021, Prevent was contacted again after another pupil at Rudakubana's school spotted a concerning social media post he had made about Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi.

Another Prevent referral was made in April 2021 after one of Rudakubana's teachers noticed he had browsers open detailing the London Bridge terror attack.

AXEL RUDAKUBANA PLEADS GUILTY TO ALL 16 CHARGES (CUSTODY IMAGE INCLUDED Axel Rudakubana, aged 18, from Banks in Lancashire has today (Monday 20 January 2025) pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to all 16 counts he was charged with., , They were three charges of murder; 10 charges of attempted murder and one charge of possession of a knife - all relating to the incident at Hart Street, Southport on 29 July 2024., , He was additionally charged on 29 October with production of a biological toxin, namely ricin, contrary to Section 1 of the Biological Weapons Act 1974; and possessing information, namely a pdf file entitled “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual” of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000., , Following his guilty plea, Rudakubana was remanded in custody to appear at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday 23 January. The hearing is due to start at 11am.
Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to all 16 counts he was charged with. (Police handout)

Although the inquiry is yet to begin, there has already been criticism of Prevent. In the immediate aftermath of the murders last summer, the home secretary commissioned a review into the programme.

Setting out the headline findings after Rudakubana's guilty pleas, Cooper said the review determined that all three referrals should not have been closed and should have been escalated.

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Too much weight was placed on the absence of ideology, she added, and the "cumulative significance" of the three referrals "was not properly considered".

According to the Sunday Times, the review will criticise counter-terrorism officers for failing to properly take into account Rudakubana's obsession with violence. It has also found they did not believe he was "in danger of being radicalised", its report says.

Cooper said a separate Home Office review of Prevent thresholds will look in particular at individuals "obsessed with school massacres" and "Islamist extremism".

Vicki Evans, senior national co-ordinator for Prevent and Pursue at Counter Terrorism Policing, said that at time of Rudakubana's referrals "the Prevent partnership response to the increasing fixation with extreme violence was evolving, but was less developed than it is today".

She added: "Although improvements to help tackle this challenge have been made, it is right that questions are asked about what more needs to be done across the whole Prevent system and beyond."

File photo dated 29/10/24 of a forensic investigator in Hart Street, Southport, where three children died and eight were injured in a knife attack during a Taylor Swift event at a dance school. Axel Rudakubana, 18, who is accused of the knife-attack murder of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, has been charged with a terror offence and producing the deadly poison ricin which was found in his home.Issue date: Tuesday October 29, 2024.
A forensic investigator in Hart Street, Southport, where the attack happened. (PA Images)

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Winstanley of Lancashire Police and chair of Lancashire Children's Safeguarding Assurance Partnership, said Rudakubana became known to a range of services in 2019, initially because of his anxiety and social isolation.

He said police have reviewed each incident and all of them will be "thoroughly examined" further in the public inquiry. An independent child safeguarding practice review, which will look at the roles of all the agencies involved with Rudakubana, will begin next month.

In October 2019, police received a referral from Childline over comments Rudakubana made about being bullied at school and taking a knife with him to classes on several occasions. When asked why, he replied: "To use it."

He was excluded from The Range High School, in Formby, near Southport, and transferred to specialist education providers at The Acorns School in Ormskirk, Lancashire.

Police were called to Rudakubana's family home in Banks, Lancashire on 5 November 2021 after he became distressed when a stranger knocked at the door. He subsequently calmed down and his parents contacted police again to say they didn't need to attend.

Officers were called to the house again on 30 November, following an argument in which Rudakubana kicked his father and damaged his car. His dad didn't want to prosecute, a decision supported by the police.

In December 2021, the same month he was first referred to Prevent, Rudakubana went back to the Range and attacked a pupil with a hockey stick. He had a kitchen knife in his backpack.

He admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of a bladed article and was given a youth referral order.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers a statement at 10 Downing Street in London, after the Government announced an inquiry into how the state failed to identify the risk posed by Axel Rudakubana, who killed three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport. Picture date: Tuesday January 21, 2025.
The prime minister has said Southport 'must be a line in the sand'. (PA)

On 17 March 2022, Rudakubana's mother called police to report him missing. He was found on a bus, having refused to pay his fare. Rudakubana left the bus when officers arrived and told them he was carrying a knife. He was taken back home and his mother was given advice around securing knives in the home.

Rudakubana's father called police on 14 May 2022 reporting that his son's behaviour had "escalated" after being denied access to a computer. Rudakubana's parents asked the attending officers for help with his behaviour.

After each of the incidents above, police officers made a vulnerable child referral to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (Mash), so the details could be assessed and shared with agencies responsible for keeping children safe.

On 21 March 2023, a member of staff at Priestfield High School in Southport called police asking for a welfare check for Rudakubana as he had not attended classes since 25 May 2022. Information was given to officers to the effect that Rudakubana had been seen by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in January 2023.

Rudakubana received care from an NHS mental health service four years before the Southport attack.

Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool, which has pledged to co-operate with the public inquiry, said he "stopped engaging" with their services in February 2023, despite "continued offers" of support.

He had been under their care since 2019.

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