In prison, Axel Rudakubana will be both a threat and a target. He will be leaving in a box

Axel Rudakubana
Axel Rudakubana

Today Axel Rudakubana begins what is highly likely to be, in fact if not in law, a whole-life detention in custody for crimes that outraged the nation and sparked widespread riots. The ability of the trial judge to apply this sanction as a formal part of the sentencing process was constrained by the fact he was nine days short of his 18th birthday when he committed his crimes. However the judge was able to impose an almost unprecedented “tariff” of 52 years for this wretched young man. This means that the earliest age that he can even be considered for release from a prison cell by the Parole Board is 71.

In terms of the pathology of imprisonment, I think it highly unlikely he will be alive to take advantage of this opportunity. We have a wildly disordered prison system where Rudukabana will be both a threat and a target. Decades of incarceration are proven to have a serious impact on life expectancy. He will be leaving prison in a box. And nobody should care.

This has not stopped some MPs from going on the record to demand that the sentence be reviewed by the Attorney General for undue leniency. I have little doubt that had the judge been able to impose a whole of life tariff he would have done so. The aggravating features of Rudakubana’s crimes have reduced even seasoned court reporters to tears. We have a special and well-deserved contempt in our society for those who harm defenceless children. The depraved indifference he showed to the lives of all he tried to murder on that day makes him a spectacularly unsympathetic character. His immaturity in age is no defence considering the monstrous harm he committed. It is significant that he showed no remorse and he was judged sane to stand trial. There can be no contextualising or mitigating such wickedness.

The harrowing summary of events by Mr Justice Goose and the enormous sentence imposed at Liverpool Crown Court ought to draw a line under the delivery of justice for the Southport massacre. Of course the victims and bereaved of this sadism will carry the scars, mental and physical for years to come. The handling of the initial communications around the attack from local police to national politics is rightly a subject for the public inquiry that will now take place.

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Implying that the judge was ‘soft’ is a dangerous game here. While he has to work within guidelines mandated by laws politicians make, its is hard to fault the logic of the process he followed. In my view the most important aspect of this case is not the length of the prison sentence but the decision that Rudubakana was fit to stand trial and understood that what he was doing was wrong. I can’t imagine the impact on public opinion if it had been decided that he was insane and therefore subject to indefinite detention in a secure hospital. We had six days of rioting in 20 towns after mangled and selective information on Rudakubana’s identity helped fuel the worst civil disorder in this country in over a decade. Over 200 people have served sentences as a result or will still be inside when Rudubakana joins them in custody.

The best response to the disgusting crimes committed by this perpetrator is to bury him now in the cement of incarceration and to recognise him only as a benighted, nameless coward. But after that we need a fundamental review of the fractured, failing and overwhelmed system that manages high risk people. We cannot be a country with an acceptable level of mass murder. Whether he is sentenced as a juvenile or an adult, the inconceivable damage has been wrought.

Alice Da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, deserved to be safe from his depravity. We must do everything to spare other little children.


Ian Acheson is a former prison governor and author of Screwed: Britain’s prison crisis and how to escape it