Southport killer ‘trying to retraumatise families from cell’, says lawyer | Sentencing
The lawyer for the families of Axel Rudakubana’s victims said the Southport killer was “trying to re-traumatize families from his cell” after it was revealed he had been transferred from prison to a psychiatric hospital.
Rudakubana, now 19, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar, six-year-old Bebe King and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults.
Rudakubana was transferred from category A prison Belmarsh to high-security Broadmoor hospital after it was concluded he could not be managed safely in prison, The Guardian reported on Thursday.
Next Wednesday marks two years since her attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29, 2024, which was followed by largely far-right riots that spread across the country.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Justice confirmed that Rudakubana had been transferred from prison to the psychiatric hospital at Broadmoor hospital.
A spokesman for the department stressed that this did not change the killer’s 52-year sentence.
Chris Walker, representing three bereaved families, told BBC Breakfast: “It’s a deep concern to me that this is a pattern that’s starting to develop with him trying to re-traumatise families from his cell, and it’s a deep concern that this is happening every year.”
He added that there was “no allegation” that Rudakubana was under any form of “psychosis” when he committed the murders.
Families were informed of the decision in a letter on July 22, but no detailed information was given as to why the transfer took place.
Walker said: “Due to the information gap, there is concern that he is manipulating the situation to his own advantage. It seems to us a coincidence that this came to light a week before the anniversary.”
“Whether this was handled poorly by the government or engineered by him.”
Deputy housing minister and former prison officer Sally Jameson said on Friday that Rudakubana would be returned to prison “as soon as possible” but did not know why the decision to move him had been made.
Alder Hey children’s NHS charity previously confirmed Rudakubana was under its care as a mental health patient between 2019 and 2023 and that he “left the relationship” at that time. He was directed to them after he said he took the knife to school and later said he did it “to use it.”
He was also directed to the UK’s counter-extremism programme, Prevent, because he was researching school massacres on a computer at his next school, Acorns.
There were two more referrals to Prevent, but neither made headway as there was no clear ideology behind Rudakubana’s obsession with violence.
Offenders who are at increased risk and who cannot be managed safely in a prison environment due to mental disorders may be transferred to secure psychiatric units.
People in these units are treated as patients, not prisoners.
Broadmoor, in Crowthorne, Berkshire, is the oldest of England’s three high-security psychiatric hospitals. It was used to hold some of the UK’s most notorious murderers, including Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.
Patients are locked up under tightly regulated conditions with locked wards, monitored by staff, and tight physical security, including 24-hour security cameras. They receive mandatory treatment and rehabilitation programs. If offenders no longer need hospital treatment, the Mental Health Act 1983 provides for a rapid return to prison.
Walker said: “What he did was carefully planned, meticulous and designed to cause maximum distress to the community. There is no evidence of any mental health disorder as part of his offending. There is no evidence of psychosis.”
“Families say that he should serve his sentence, that he should not go to the hospital, that he should be in prison.”
