Inquiry launched into Axel Rudakubana’s Southport triple-murder

7 April 2025, 14:35

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has launched a public inquiry into the Southport murders after three young girls were killed last July. Picture: Alamy

By Alice Padgett

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has launched a public inquiry into the Southport murders after three young girls were killed last July. Loading audio...

Ms Cooper said the two-phase statutory public inquiry "thoroughly investigate" the circumstances around Axel Rudakubana's attack.[1]

The first phase will have particular focus on issues around policing[2], the criminal justice system and the multiple agencies involved with Rudakubana, following the revelation he had been referred to the Government's Prevent scheme on three occasions but the cases were closed.

Rudakubana was arrested after his attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in which he killed Elsie Stancombe, seven, six-year-old Bebe King and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar.[3][4]

The teenager was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 52 years - one of the highest minimum terms on record.

Ms Cooper said: "The brutal murder of three young girls: Bebe, Elsie and Alice in Southport was an unimaginable tragedy - we owe it to their families, and all those affected on that terrible day to quickly understand what went wrong, answer difficult questions and do everything in our power to prevent something like this from happening again."

Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice Dasilva Aguiar and Bebe King. Picture: Merseyside Police

The second phase will examine the wider issue of young people being drawn into extreme violence.

Sir Adrian Fulford, a former vice-president of the Court of Appeal who sentenced Sarah Everard's killer Wayne Couzens to a whole-life term, will chair the inquiry.

This comes as The Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, told LBC he will not recommend the definition of terrorism is broadened in the wake of the Southport attacks.

Speaking to LBC's Tom Swarbrick[5], Mr Hall said it was an incredibly sensitive issue but there also needs to be perspective.

"Should you change the definition (of terrorism) to deal with what you might call 'terrorising violence'? My answer is firmly no," Mr Hall said.

"Some people think that terrorism has to be applied because it shows how serious it is.

But there's lots of very serious things that happen - for example, murder and rape - that you don't call terrorism."

Britain's Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood (L) and Britain's Home Secretary Yvette Cooper listen as Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (unseen) speaks during a press conference at the Downing Street Briefing Room on January 25 in London, England. Picture: Getty[8]

Axel Rudakubana had shown a clear interest in violence, including the Manchester Arena bombings that killed 22 people and saying he "wanted to stab people".

"If you started to say every really violent, sadistic murder (was terrorism), things like the threat level would have to go up," Mr Hall said.

"There is a tier of quite extreme, non-terrorist violence and I'm saying are there lessons from managing terrorists, where you have what's called a subject of interest and you have a designated person in high-risk cases who has a firm eye on them."

Home Secretary admits she doesn't know the full Southport story

The head of the Government's counter-terror programme Prevent left his role in March, it is understood.

Michael Stewart is reported to have left the top job, according to The Times, after a Prevent learning review revealed Rudakubana's case was closed prematurely before he went on to carry out the Southport murders.

Three separate referrals were made to Prevent about Rudakubana's behaviour in the years before the attack, as well as six separate calls to police.

The Home Office does not comment on internal staffing.

A review found there was a sufficient risk posed by Rudakubana to keep his cases within Prevent active but these were closed prematurely while too much focus was placed on a lack of distinct ideology.

In a learning point over his first referral in 2019, the review said there was sufficient information to refer Rudakubana to the next stage of the programme, called Channel, especially because of his age and complex needs.

It said Rudakubana's research of school shootings, talking about stabbing people and saying the terrorist attack on 'MEN', believed to refer to the Manchester Arena attack in 2017, "may have shown a real interest in terrorism".

There were a number of factors present to have concerns about Rudakubana and his potential vulnerability to being drawn into terrorism, it added.

New footage of Axel Rudakubana's arrest released

A yoga teacher who was repeatedly stabbed in the Southport attacks described helping several children to run to safety, adding she felt she had to survive in order to save those in her class.

In a new interview, Ms Lucas described how she was able to get herself and several children out of the room, despite suffering stab wounds to her spine, head, ribs, lung and shoulder blade.

She told the BBC: "(Rudakubana) opened the door and just grabbed a child. I didn't know what he was doing.

"He then grabbed the next child. And the next child.

And then I shout: 'Who is that?'"

Then I struggle to get that part of the memory back because he moves from the girls at the table and he moves over to right next to me.

"I just felt something go in my back ... and my brain just said: He's got me.

So he got me and then he got me again.

"But I just knew that if I didn't get out, everyone was going to die."

Ms Lucas sustained five stab wounds to her spine, head, ribs, lung and shoulder blade.

Despite this, the yoga instructor and her friend, dance teacher Heidi Liddle, were able to get several children out of the room.

She shared her story with LBC at a candle-lit vigil in memory of the women and girls who have lost their lives to male violence in Merseyside.

She had never previously spoken about the attack.

"It has just made us feel very unsafe," she admitted.

"My purpose was creating wellbeing events for children and families, and for that to happen where I was, and for the words I spoke and the children spoke, for that to be trampled over has really dampened all of our spirits."

References

1. ^ Axel Rudakubana's attack. (www.lbc.co.uk)
2. ^ policing (www.lbc.co.uk)
3. ^ Rudakubana (www.lbc.co.uk)
4. ^ Alice da Silva Aguiar. (www.lbc.co.uk)
5. ^ Tom Swarbrick (www.lbc.co.uk)
6. ^ Prevent boss leaves role following review into Southport killer (www.lbc.co.uk)
7. ^ Police officer driving van that followed two teens before fatal e-bike crash will not face charges (www.lbc.co.uk)
8. ^ Getty (www.gettyimages.co.uk)