Home Secretary announces public inquiry into Southport murders

Hundreds of tributes have continued to mount in memory of the young girls killed in the Southport stabbings
-Credit:Reach Publishing Services Limited


Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced there will a public inquiry into how Southport child-killer Axel Rudakubana “came to be so dangerous” and why a government scheme designed to stop young people becoming terrorists “failed to identify the terrible risk” he posed to others. Rudakubana today admitted the murders of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Da Silva Aguiar during the Southport stabbings.

The 18-year-old, of Banks in West Lancashire, changed his pleas to guilty on Monday, the day he was due to go on trial at Liverpool Crown Court. The three little girls, aged six, seven and nine respectively, were stabbed to death during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at the Hart Space in the seaside town shortly before midday on July 29.

Ms Cooper confirmed Rudakubana had “contact with a range of different state agencies throughout his teenage years” before carrying out his “meticulously planned rampage”. The defendant also admitted the attempted murders of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.

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READ MORE: 'Britain will rightly demand answers' into how state 'failed' girls in Southport murders

READ MORE: Merseyside Police issues stern warning ahead of Axel Rudakubana trial

Ms Cooper said in a statement: “He was referred three times to the Prevent programme between December 2019 and April 2021 aged 13 and 14. He also had contact with the police, the courts, the Youth Justice system, social services and mental health services. Yet between them, those agencies failed to identify the terrible risk and danger to others that he posed.”

-Credit:Merseyside Police
-Credit:Merseyside Police

Announcing the public inquiry, the Home Secretary added: “Although, in line with CPS advice to preserve the integrity of the prosecution, we were constrained in what we were able to say at the time, the Home Office commissioned an urgent Prevent Learning Review during the summer into the three referrals that took place and why they were closed.

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“We will publish further details this week, alongside new reforms to the Prevent programme. But we also need more independent answers on both Prevent and all the other agencies that came into contact with this extremely violent teenager as well as answers on how he came to be so dangerous, including through a public inquiry that can get to the truth about what happened and what needs to change.”

In a statement before the inquiry was announced, the prime minister said there were "grave questions to answer". Sir Keir Starmer said "Britain will rightly demand answers" adding: "We will leave no stone unturned in that pursuit. At the centre of this horrific event, there is still a family and community grief that is raw; a pain that not even justice can ever truly heal.

"Although no words today can ever truly convey the depths of that pain, I want the families to know that our thoughts are with them and everyone in Southport affected by this barbaric crime. The whole nation grieves with them."