Southport inquiry expected to criticise bungling public bodies who failed to stop killer before he murdered three girls
The inquest report into the horrific murders of three little girls in Southport is expected to be highly critical of public services for ignoring the threat posed by the killer.
At least six public bodies are expected to be heavily criticized in tomorrow’s report, including two police forces, two NHS mental health services and the local council’s family and social services.
Axel Rudakubana’s parents, social media company X and four retailers who allowed him to buy knives and machetes without fully checking his age are also facing condemnation.
Rudakubana was 17 years old when he stabbed Bebe King, 6, Elsie Stancombe, 7, and Alice Aguiar, 9, to death at a Taylor Swift dance class on July 29, 2024. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in January last year.
The inquiry, chaired by former judge Sir Adrian Fulford, heard he had been involved in public institutions from the age of 13 and admitted taking a knife into school at least ten times, leading to his permanent suspension.
Joanne Hodson, special educational needs co-ordinator at Acorns student referral unit, said she was ‘very worried’ about him and hoped they would get help, but one by one the institutions were ‘robbed’.
At the time of the murders, he had not been seen by family or mental health services for months after attempts to see him were abandoned.
Axel Rudakubana stabbed Bebe King (left), Elsie Stancombe (center) and Alice Aguiar (right) to death at Taylor Swift’s dance class in 2024.
The inquest report into the horror murder in Southport is expected to be highly critical of public services for ignoring the threat posed by Rudakubana (pictured)
A child protection order that would have removed him from the family home was disregarded, despite evidence that he could not endure the violence inflicted by his parents.
His school made three referrals to the Radicalization Prevention program, but each was rejected.
Just before leaving his home to attack the girls, Rudakubana, who comes from a Christian family, went to X to watch a video of a 15-year-old boy stabbing a bishop in Australia.
On the day of the attack, his father heard him leaving the house in Banks, near Southport. She sobbed as she told the inquest: ‘I was just holding on to the hope that he would go for a walk.’
