What we know as Southport suspect Axel Rudakubana appears in court over terror offence

Axel Rudakubana, 18, faced fresh charges as he appeared in court on Wednesday.

Axel Rudakubana during his court hearing on Wednesday. (Helen Tipper/SWNS)
Axel Rudakubana during his court hearing on Wednesday. (Helen Tipper/SWNS)

The teenager accused of the fatal stabbing of three girls at a dance class in Southport has appeared in court facing fresh and "related" charges, including an alleged terror offence.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via videolink from HMP Belmarsh. He was charged with production of ricin, a deadly poison, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.

The case was adjourned until next month.

Rudakubana was already charged with the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in July.

It comes as the government has denied a "cover-up" relating to the new charges.

Here, Yahoo News UK explains what we know so far about Rudakubana and his case. Scroll down or use the links below.

- What happened to Axel Rudakubana in court today?

- What has Axel Rudakubana been charged with?

- Number 10 denies cover-up

- What is ricin?

- Who is Axel Rudakubana?

Rudakubana remained silent and did not answer questions during the 10-minute hearing.

Appearing via videolink, he sat holding his sweater over the bottom half of his face.

He did not respond when asked to confirm his name, and a security officer with him at the prison told the court he had chosen not to speak.

Stan Reiz, defending, said: “Mr Rudakubana has remained silent at previous hearings as well. For reasons of his own he has chosen not to answer the question.” The barrister confirmed his client’s identity and proceedings continued.

Addressing the defendant later in the hearing, the chief magistrate, district judge Paul Goldspring, asked whether the teenager would nod to signal his understanding but he did not react.

Prosecutor Deanna Heer applied for the new charges to be sent to Liverpool Crown Court to “link up” with the other charges Rudakubana faces relating to the July Southport incident.

She confirmed to the judge that the matters were “related”.

Judge Goldspring remanded Rudakubana in custody on the new charges and sent the case to Liverpool Crown Court for a plea and trial preparation hearing on 13 November.

Rudakubana is charged with the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, who were stabbed during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Hart Street, Southport, on 29 July.

He is also charged with the attempted murder of eight other children, instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes, as well as possession of a knife.

(L-R) Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, have been named as the victims of the Southport stabbing. (PA)
Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, were killed in the attack. (PA)

The teenager now faces additional charges of production of a biological toxin, ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.

The new charges followed searches of his home in Banks, Lancashire, Chief Constable Serena Kennedy told a press conference on Tuesday.

She said the terror offence relates to a PDF file entitled "Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual".

Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy providing an update into the investigation into the murders of six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar, and the attempted murders of eight children and two adults in Southport on July 29, at Merseyside Police Headquarters, Liverpool. Axel Rudakubana, 18, who is accused of the knife-attack murder of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, has been charged with a terror offence and producing the deadly poison ricin which was found in his home, Merseyside Police Chief
Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy announcing the terror charges at a press conference. (Alamy)

Questions continue to be asked about what the government knew and when about the new allegations.

The BBC reported it was aware in the past few weeks that Rudakubana was facing fresh charges.

Conservative MP Robert Jenrick has questioned whether a 'cover-up' took place under the Labour government, saying he was concerned facts may have been withheld from the public and that Starmer "must urgently explain to the country what he knew about the Southport attack and when he learned it".

Fellow Conservative Kemi Badenoch said there were “serious questions to be asked of the police, the CPS and also of Keir Starmer’s response to the whole situation”.

Downing Street said it was “not correct” to say the government had withheld information.

Chief Constable Kennedy also said it was “certainly not the case” that police were keeping information from the public.

Birmingham, UK. 02 OCT, 2024. Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch on stage together for the first time as Conservative party conference came to a close with the four potential leadership candidates making final speeches on stage in what has widely been seen as a narrowing race to lead the Tory party. Credit Milo Chandler/Alamy Live News
Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick have both spoken out since the additional charges were announced. (Alamy)

The Southport attack has not been declared a terrorist incident by counter-terror police. Chief Constable Kennedy also confirmed there was "no ricin present at Hart Street".

Amid the debate, Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism laws, said authorities should put out all the information they can to avoid misinformation on social media.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: “I would always say... if there is information that you can give, put it in the public domain, and be really careful that you don’t fall into the trap of saying ‘we can only say zilch, because there are criminal proceedings’.

“Quite often, there’s a fair amount of information that can be put into the public domain, and I think I detect that the police are trying to do that.”

Ricin is a toxic chemical poison estimated to be 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide. The toxin is found naturally in castor beans and is part of the waste “mash” produced when castor oil is made.

Ricin can be found in the form of a powder, mist or pellet and can be fatal when inhaled, ingested, injected or swallowed.

Two millionths of an ounce are enough to kill an adult, roughly the weight of a grain of salt. Symptoms of ricin poisoning include difficulty breathing, nausea, fever and a cough.

It would take a deliberate act to make ricin and use it to kill someone, and one such case was recorded in 1978.

Bulgarian journalist Georgi Markov died after he was stabbed on Waterloo Bridge with an umbrella rigged to inject a poison pellet into his leg.

Red flowers of the castor bean plant from which castor oil is produced.
Red flowers of the castor bean plant, where ricin can be found naturally. (Getty Images)

No antidote exists for ricin poisoning because the toxin kills the cells inside a person’s body, preventing cells from making the protein they need.

This property has been considered beneficial in the treatment of cancer because it can induce apoptosis in cancer cells.

During the First World War, the US military thought about coating bullets and shrapnel in ricin, but the thermal sensitivity of ricin to heat posed a problem. The military also contemplated creating a “dust cloud” of ricin to be used as a weapon but delayed development until a toxin was created.

Speaking at Tuesday's press conference, Dr Renu Bindra, senior medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency, said: “There was no evidence that any victims, responders or members of the public were exposed to Ricin, either as part of the incident or afterwards.

“Our detailed initial risk assessment judged that the risk to the community and the wider public was low.”

Born in Cardiff to parents from Rwanda, Rudakubana and his family moved in 2013 to the quiet Lancashire village of Banks, just outside Southport.

In 2018, Rudakubana appeared in a Doctor Who-themed advert for BBC Children In Need. The now-deleted clip shows him leaving the Tardis wearing a trench coat and tie to look like the show’s former star David Tennant.

The then 11-year-old tells viewers “it’s that time of year again", before offering advice on how best to raise money.

It is understood he was recruited for the video through a casting agency and had nothing to do with any Children In Need projects.

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