Axel Rudakubana's name repeatedly misspelled and cases 'prematurely' closed review finds

Axel Rudakubana in the taxi as it arrives outside Hart Space before he carried out a mass stabbing
-Credit:Merseyside Police


The counter terrorism-led Prevent scheme "prematurely" closed Axel Rudakubana's cases and repeatedly misspelled his name, a damning government review has found. The review, commissioned in the wake of Rudakubana's sentencing for a triple murder in Southport, looked into the three occasions the teenager had been referred to Prevent after he had expressed an interest in school shootings, the London Bridge attack, the IRA and conflicts in the Middle East.

Rudakubana, who is now serving a minimum of 52 years in prison, was referred to the programme between December 2019 and April 2021, but there was no evidence of a fixed ideology or motivation. The 55-page review concluded that Prevent officers had shown "a high level of compliance," but put "too much focus on the absence of a distinct ideology" during their previous contact with the teenager and closed his case files instead of escalating them further.

Security minister Dan Jarvis told the House of Commons: "The overall conclusion of the review is that he should have been case managed through the multi-agency process, rather than closed to Prevent. This would have enabled co-ordinated multi-agency risk management and support."

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Following the publication of the review, Southport's Labour MP Patrick Hurley called for the 14 recommendations to be implemented "rapidly" because "some of the details in this report beggared belief". The government said it accepted all the recommendations, with Mr Jarvis vowing to do "everything in our power" to stop further atrocities. He said the government had begun an internal review of the Prevent thresholds, to make sure it can deal with the "full range" of threats.

Rudakubana was handed one of the highest minimum term life sentences on record for murdering Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29 last year. The now 18-year-old also attempted to murder eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as well as class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes. He also admitted production of ricin and possession of a military study of an Al-Qaeda training manual.

Today's review revealed new details about Rudakubana's behaviour that led to the Prevent referrals. The first referral came in 2019 when he was enrolled at The Acorns School in Ormskirk after his exclusion from Range High School in Formby. He was permanently removed from the school after he told Childline he was taking a knife into school for what he claimed was his own protection. He later admitted to taking a knife onto the school premises on 10 separate occasions.

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During his time at the special educational needs (SEN) school, he was found to have displayed violent behaviour and openly discussed guns. In the learning review it was revealed how he also researched shootings in an ICT lesson. He was also observed to have walked around the school punching objects, such as a laminate sign hanging from the ceiling.

During an art lesson, Rudakubana questioned why he was able to draw images of guns but not search for them on the internet. He then asked "can we have a picture of a severed head then?". The same day as the art lesson, he was overheard talking to a pupil about watching videos of people hurting themselves. The teen also made a graphic comment about a drill bit breaking and killing someone.

The second referral came when he was reported to have made posts on Instagram relating to Libya and Colonel Gaddafi. The third was a result of Rudakubana researching the 2017 London Bridge terror attack. There were also six separate calls to police.

The learning review found counter terrorism officers staffing the Prevent scheme had "sufficient information" to escalate his case to the next stage - known as Channel - which would have included enhanced monitoring. The review also found that during the referrals Rudakubana's name was spelled incorrectly. The report reviewer said "it is not known why this has occurred, there is potential that previous referrals will not show up in searches".

Mr Jarvis said: "There was an under-exploration of the significance of his repeat referrals and the cumulative risk, including his history of violence. There were potentially incomplete lines of inquiry, that at the time the perpetrator could have fallen into a mixed, unclear or unstable category for Channel due to his potential interest in mass violence.

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"Indeed, the overall conclusion of the review is that he should have been case-managed through the Channel multi-agency process, rather than closed to Prevent."

Mr Jarvis continued: "While we can never undo the hurt and pain caused by this unthinkably wretched attack, we can, we must, and we will do everything in our power to prevent further atrocities. As the prime minister said, Southport must be a line in the sand for our country. If that means asking difficult questions about shortcomings or failings, so be it.

"If it means holding institutions and processes to account, we will do so without fear or favour. And if changes are required to protect the public and combat the threats that we face, then this government will not hesitate to act." Mr Jarvis added Rudakubana will now be considered as a "registered terrorist offender" and treated as a "person convicted of an offence under the Terrorism Act", after the teenager also pleaded guilty to possession of a military study of an Al-Qaeda training manual.

The head of Counter-Terrorism Policing Matt Jukes said of the review into the handling of Rudakubana before his attack: "We have taken the unprecedented step of publishing the review. It describes decisions made in line with policy in place at the time, in a system that was not equipped to deal with emerging risks that were very different to those it had been built to address. In this case, there were at least 15 contact points with public services – health, education and social care systems, and the police.

"We want to see a system where every one of those contacts counts, and where the sum total of all of them taken together is seen as the red flag that it should be." Mr Jukes said that cases where young people are drawn into extreme violence online, combined with mental health and social challenges, should have "a clear home" rather than being passed between organisations.

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Following Mr Jarvis' speech, Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp called for a further public inquiry into Rudakubana to consider his past mental health interventions. Mr Philp asked Home Office minister Dan Jarvis to "confirm that it will be a statutory inquiry", adding: "That is important so it has powers to compel witnesses to attend, take evidence under oath, and obtain documents. It is vital we get to the truth about the opportunities which may have existed to stop Rudakubana committing these sickening murders."

In his response, Mr Jarvis said: "Let me confirm to him in response to his question that it will begin on a non-statutory footing. That is deliberate in order to get it up and moving as quickly as possible but it will then be moved onto a statutory footing, so I can give him that assurance."