Axel Rudakubana, 18, described by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as a “two-click killer”, used a knife bought from Amazon to kill three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside, in July, when he was aged 17.
Starmer said it was “shockingly easy” for children to buy knives on the web and said laws may include buyers having to submit an official identity document, such as a passport or driving licence, and also record a live video to prove their age, the BBC reports.
Following Rudakubana’s guilty pleas to murder on Monday, it emerged the isolated teenager, who was obsessed with genocide, had numerous interactions with agencies in Lancashire, including referrals to anti-radicalisation scheme Prevent.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced a public inquiry into how the “system failed to tackle his violence for so many years”. There will also be a child safeguarding practice review in Lancashire.
A joint statement issued by Merseyside Police, Counter Terrorism Policing and Lancashire Child Safeguarding Partnership said: "The Lancashire Child Safeguarding Partnership has commissioned an independent child safeguarding practice review to look at the roles of all the agencies involved with Axel Rudakubana, their interaction with him and his family and to identify if there is any learning which could assist the collective safeguarding practice."
Following the guilty pleas entered by Axel Rudakubana this morning in relation to the tragic incident in Southport on 29 July 2024, Chief Constable Serena Kennedy, said: “Our thoughts today are with the families of Bebe, Elsie and Alice and the children and adults who were… pic.twitter.com/7BlRo0vPZn
— Merseyside Police (@MerseyPolice) January 20, 2025
Rudakubana was referred to Prevent three times, amid concerns over his interest in violence. However, he was assessed as not motivated by a terrorist ideology nor to pose a terrorist threat and therefore did not qualify for the programme.
Rudakubana was aged 13 in 2019 when he was first referred to Prevent and a further two referrals were made in 2021, all when he was a schoolchild in Lancashire.
Cooper told the Commons yesterday: “Between October 2019 and May 2022, Lancashire police responded to five calls from his home address about his behaviour.
“He was referred repeatedly to the multi-agency safeguarding hub.
“He had contact with children’s social care, the early help service, child and adolescent mental health services.
“He was convicted of a violent assault against another child at school and was referred to the local youth offending team.
“He was excluded from one school, he had long periods of absence from another.
“All those agencies had contact with him.
“Yet between them they completely failed to identify the terrible danger that he posed.
“How did he fall through so many gaps?
“It is just unbearable to think that something more could and should have been done.
“There are grave questions about how this network of agencies failed to identify and act on the risks.
“There were so many signs of how dangerous he had become. Yet the action against him was far too weak.
“Families need the truth about why the system failed to tackle his violence for so many years.
“That is why we are setting up an independent public inquiry.”
Cooper promised the tightening of restrictions on online knife buying in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring.
Cooper said the inquiry would also consider the “wider challenge of rising youth violence and extremism” and access to extremist material online.
As part of this, she is demanding Elon Musk’s X platform remove a violent terrorist video watched by Rudakubana just before he set off from his home on the killing spree.
Rudakubana's guilty pleas and sentencing
Rudakubana, pleaded guilty to the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at Liverpool Crown Court on the first scheduled day of his trial on Monday.
He also admitted 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a kitchen knife as well as charges of producing ricin and possessing an al Qaeda training manual found in searches of his home in Banks, Lancashire.
Eight other children, aged between seven and 13, and two adults - yoga instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes - were injured in the attack at the Hart Space dance school on 29 July.
On Thursday (23 January) Rudakubana was sentenced to life in custody with a minimum of 52 years behind bars.
The sentencing judge, Mr Justice Goose said: "I consider at this time that it is likely that he will never be released and that he will spend most of the rest of his life in custody."
The judge added that while Rudakubana had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and some communication and attention difficulties, his condition was high-functioning and offered no explanation for crimes of this severity.
"I am not persuaded that his emotional age is any different from his chronological age," continued the judge, who described the violence as "horrific" and "extreme".
The judge said that he "must accept" that there was no evidence Rudakubana had adopted any particular terrorist ideology, but added his culpability is "equivalent to terrorist matters, whatever its purpose".
- This story was updated on 23 January to include the sentencing.
