Southport attack: ‘catastrophic’ failures by multiple agencies contributed to atrocity, public inquiry finds – live updates | Southport attack
Southport attack blamed on ‘catastrophic’ failures of institutions and killer’s ‘irresponsible’ parents
Josh Halliday
A damning investigation found Axel Rudakubana was able to carry out the Southport atrocity because of the “catastrophic” failures of multiple institutions and the “irresponsible and harmful” role of his parents.
Sir Adrian Fulford condemned the “inappropriate merry-go-round” of government agencies taking responsibility and their “frankly demoralizing” refusal to accept responsibility, saying: “This culture needs to end.”
The murder of three teenage girls – 6-year-old Bebe King, 9-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar and 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe – and the stabbing of 10 others was not “a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky”, the head of the inquiry said.
He added: “Instead, a form of serious violence…was clearly, repeatedly and unmistakably marked over the years.
“In fact, many professionals in direct contact [Rudakubana] “He expressed serious fears, sometimes in harsh terms, that he would harm or kill.”
Rudakubana was sentenced to life imprisonment last year following his violent attack on teenage girls at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in the Merseyside town on July 29, 2024.
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Victims’ lawyers say state failed to learn from Southport shooting
Josh Halliday
Lawyers for victims of the brutality said ministers had “failed to learn the lessons” of the Southport attack and allowed young people obsessed with violence to remain a “catastrophic” threat to society, ahead of the findings of an official inquiry.
Judge Sir Adrian Fulford’s report into the July 2024 attack, to be published on Monday, is expected to strongly criticize the failings of a number of institutions, including the counter-terrorism program Prevent.
Killer Axel Rudakubana was referred to Prevent three times, but concerns were ignored, in part because he did not express a clear ideology.
Counterterrorism officials have since vowed that people who are not clearly motivated by jihadism or other beliefs will now pass through Prevent if they have an apparent obsession with extreme violence, such as Rudakubana.
But the Guardian analysis found that of 3,400 cases highlighting these concerns in children and young people, only one in 10 received anti-radicalisation support by March 2025.
Chris Walker, lawyer for the families of the three murdered girls – Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9 – said the system was “not fit for purpose and needs to undergo fundamental changes to reduce serious risks to society”.
Starmer: ‘We will act according to the recommendations of the investigation’
Addressing whether the government would act on the recommendations of the Southport inquiry before the findings were published on Monday, the prime minister told reporters: “I promised we would get to the bottom of this and that’s why we launched the investigation.”
He added:
We will act on the recommendations, it is really important that we do this. Of course there will be a full report, there will be recommendations, we can examine them in detail – but for me this is a matter of principle.
It is absolutely right that we act according to the findings of this, and we will act according to those findings.
Asked whether organizations would be held responsible, Keir Starmer said:
There needs to be responsibility, there always needs to be accountability.
The first important thing is to look at what those recommendations are, what needs to change, and be a government that says ‘we will move this, we will do what we say’; We made a promise on this issue, and when we make a promise, we will follow it.
Inquiry chief says obligation is to respond to victims and families
Mayor Adrian Fulford, who will publish his report at noon, said his duty was to respond to victims and their families.
Concluding the hearings in November, he said:
It is our primary responsibility to provide the best possible explanation of why and how this terrible event occurred and, if possible, to be bold in recommending the changes that need to be made to prevent its recurrence.
The second phase of the investigation will build on the findings of the first phase and is expected to focus on the risk posed by young people obsessed or obsessed with acts of extreme violence.
Lawyer: ‘This cannot be another navel-gazing exercise by the government’
The inquest, which took place over nine weeks at Liverpool City Hall last year, heard from more than 100 witnesses, 67 of whom gave live evidence.
The report covered issues including Rudakubana’s involvement with health services, social care and education, and three referrals made and closed to counter-terrorism program Prevent before he carried out the attack.
Lawyer Nicola Brook of Broudie Jackson Canter, who represented Leanne Lucas, John Hayes and other adult survivor Heidi Liddle, said:
Going through the extensive list of failures revealed in the first phase of the investigation provoked an understandably complex mix of emotions for our clients who struggle with the daily consequences of survivor guilt.
We hope that the report will expose all organizations that failed to take timely action to prevent this devastating attack, and that all organizations found to be at fault are determined to demonstrate to the public that they are determined not only to learn lessons, but to take every step to prevent such an atrocity from happening again.
We cannot look back on this investigation in years to come and summarize it as just another exercise in government navel-gazing.
He added:
There is no regulatory mechanism to ensure that recommendations at the end of an investigation are appropriately considered and acted upon; Therefore, as with the Manchester Arena Inquiry, we strongly urge the chairman to put in place a process to monitor the progress of all recommendations and provide evidence to support them.
Our customers’ thoughts have remained with the bereaved since that heartbreaking day and remain so today.
The findings of the public inquiry into the Southport attack will be published at noon
The findings of the public inquiry into the Southport attack will be published at 12pm.
The investigation heard evidence about the attack and that state institutions led this incident with 19-year-old murderer Axel Rudakubana.
Nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar, six-year-old Bebe King and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe were killed when Rudakubana entered the Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop at Hart Space with a knife on July 29, 2024.
The killer, then 17, also attempted to kill eight other children, class teacher Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
