Southport killer’s brother thought he’d kill their father and compared him to ‘sociopath’ killer from film No Country For Old Men

The brother of the Southport killer has revealed he feared his brother would kill their father and saw similarities between him and the ‘sociopath’ killer in thriller No Country For Old Men.

Axel Rudakubana, 17, killed seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, six-year-old Bebe King and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar when he was attacked at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport in July last year.

The investigation into the persecution is being heard today from his brother Dion Rudakubana, of whom the media is legally prevented from publishing any photographs or audio recordings.

Dion, 21, told the inquest that his younger brother’s behavior worsened and became increasingly violent after he was expelled from mainstream education at the age of 13.

He said Axel began to fear that he might kill someone in the house from 2022, when he was 15 years old.

Dion said he broke plates and confronted his father, Alphonse, 49, demanding the police be called. However, he said he could not remember whether Axel was holding a knife or a bottle at the time.

The inquest was shown messages Dion had sent to a friend, describing how she feared her brother would hit her and become violent for talking late at night, which Axel did not like.

Dion said her younger brother reminded her of the fictional sociopathic killer in the 2007 Hollywood film No Country for Old Men.

(LR) Six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar were killed in the July 29, 2024 atrocity.

The older brother of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana said he saw similarities between his brother and Javier Bardem’s ‘sociopath’ killer Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men (pictured)

In the movie, the main character Anton Chigurth, played by Javier Bardem, kills 10 people.

“I watched it recently and it worried me,” Dion told the inquest.

Inquiry barrister Richard Boyle said: ‘You describe this character as a sociopath and he is very close to your brother. ‘This character kills 10 people throughout the movie.’

Dion replied: ‘Yes, that’s why it concerns me. I felt the threat was inside the house and even then nothing came of it.’

He said he never entered his brother’s bedroom due to his ‘violent reactions’ and that he stopped talking to him altogether in the summer of 2023.

Dion, who moved away to go to university a year ago, said: ‘I wasn’t home much so I wasn’t engaging in heavy conversations as much as I used to.

‘There was also an increased risk of him attacking her, so my parents told me to be careful.’

He said his brother’s ability to empathize with others had ‘diminished’ overtime after he was expelled from The Range High School for taking a knife to class in October 2019. He said Axel became increasingly socially isolated, fearful and paranoid.

X’s head of global affairs Deanna Romina Khananisho gives evidence in Southport inquiry

Dion described her last interaction with her brother in the summer of 2023, when Axel threw a metal bottle at her.

He said he managed to close the door to prevent it from hitting him, but accepted he may have been ‘seriously injured’.

The inquest also heard that there was a lot of “tension” between Axel and his father and that his younger brother also stopped speaking to Mr Rudakubana after a few months.

Mr Boyle asked: ‘Who was AR talking to at the time?’

“My mother,” Dion replied.

“And there is no one else,” the lawyer added.

“That’s right,” Dion added.

Dion said she was ‘scared’ of going to university in September 2022 because her brother’s violent outbursts had become so bad.

She said she was never asked about her brother’s behavior by social services, mental health workers or police.

When asked if she would tell them that she was afraid Axel might ‘kill someone in the household’, Dion replied: ‘I wouldn’t say that in vain (but) I would explain that I was afraid some disagreement would escalate.’

He also admitted that he ‘didn’t think’ about telling anyone because the problem was ‘slowly’ growing.

“When I went to college, I had less knowledge of what was going on, so I relied on my family, who were in contact with these services, to know more,” Dion added.

According to Sky News, the investigation heard notes made following a Lancashire County Council visit to the family home in August 2021.

Axel reportedly said his father, Alphonse, hit the eight-year-old children, meaning him and his sister, Dion.

However, Alphonse objected to these allegations as ‘false’, but admitted that he hit the brothers with his slippers while they were fighting with each other.

Earlier, the inquiry heard from X’s head of global affairs, Deanna Romina Khananisho; He said it would be a “cruel overreach” to remove a “horrific” video of a bishop being stabbed, which the Southport attacker watched moments before he went on his killing spree.

Rudakubana watched the stabbing of Australian bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who lost his eye after being stabbed multiple times by a young terrorist while broadcasting a sermon live on the internet six minutes before leaving home to carry out this atrocity.

Ms Khananisho told the public inquiry that, by chance, she watched this sermon in real time last April when the attack took place.

He acknowledged that the video depicted ‘horrific violence’ but insisted that was no reason to delete it from X, formerly known as Twitter.

When KC’s Nicholas Moss asked whether allowing the images to remain online encouraged ‘violent and hateful acts’, Ms Khananisho, who describes herself as a freedom of expression fighter, said she viewed the incident differently.

‘I saw a miracle happen that day,’ he said. ‘People saw a monster, I saw an angel protecting Mar Mari. ‘Where people saw a helpless victim, I saw many heroes and parishioners rushing to save him.’

He claimed that the video clearly showed the bishop reaching out from among parishioners pinning the attacker to the ground, touching his head and praying for him.

Ms Khananisho said the video represented ‘hope, faith and forgiveness’ and added: ‘I watch this video and I watch it for these reasons.

‘To take this from me under the guise of security is not justice, it is cruel excess.’

The investigation heard Rudakubana had several accounts on X using the username Red_Lorry123.

He had bypassed X’s age verification process by simply lying about his date of birth to gain access to ‘sensitive’ or violent material only available to people over the age of 18.

Ms Khananisho admitted the firm had been forced to introduce stricter regulations on age verification since the Online Safety Act came into force in December, requiring users to provide “live selfies” or a Government-certified ID.

But he pointed out that any child who is ‘determined’ to watch violence online will find a way to do so.

“Frankly, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much protection we have, if someone is determined to find content, they will find it on any platform,” Ms. Khananisho said.

The inquiry heard that other social media giants immediately agreed to the Government’s request to remove the video of the bishop being stabbed immediately after the Southport attack, but X refused. There is no existing legislation that can force them to comply.

Ms Khananisho insisted there was ‘no evidence’ that the video triggered Rudakubana’s attack and stressed that removing the video amounted to ‘censorship’ and that this was ‘not something we accept’.

“I don’t know what he (Rudakubana) was thinking… so I can’t make the assumption that the video was the trigger,” he added.

Mr Moss argued that by refusing to remove the video, X had put the importance of free speech above the feelings of dead or injured girls.

Explaining that she came from an ‘oppressed’ country where people were ‘persecuted’ for their beliefs, Ms Khananisho responded: ‘The importance of freedom of expression is that it is literally in the strong hands of all governments.

‘If you’re asking me to limit these free rights because I have an emotional response to a terrible attack, then we’re restricting people’s rights every day because bad things happen, attacks happen every day. ‘I personally disagree with this.’

Rudakubana was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 52 years at Liverpool Crown Court in January.

His family will testify tomorrow.

The investigation at Liverpool City Hall continues.