Axel Rudakubana transferred to Broadmoor
Axel Rudakubana, the 19-year-old who murdered three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, has been moved from Belmarsh prison to Broadmoor psychiatric hospital. Officials deemed he could not be safely managed in a prison environment due to mental disorders.
The transfer will cost approximately £300,000 per year, compared to £60,000 in prison, raising concerns that Rudakubana was 'playing the system' for a more comfortable setting. He will serve the remainder of his 52-year sentence at the high-security hospital, which has housed notorious criminals such as Peter Sutcliffe and Charles Bronson.
Details of the transfer
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: 'The families of those murdered and injured in Southport will be in this country’s heart forever and our thoughts remain with them. Any decision to transfer an offender is made following an independent, clinical assessment, under the Mental Health Act. Following rigorous security checks, the offender has been transferred to a high-security psychiatric unit, where he will remain until assessed fit to return to prison.'
The spokesperson added: 'Officials have approved this transfer, on behalf of Ministers. This transfer does not change his sentence – which remains at 52 years – and of which he will serve every single day.'
Rudakubana's crimes and prison incident
Rudakubana received a life sentence for the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine; Bebe King, six; and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, as well as the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults. In May last year, while at HMP Belmarsh, he allegedly attacked a prison officer with boiling water from a kettle in his cell.
Broadmoor, in Berkshire, is the oldest of the UK's three high-security hospitals and has held high-profile criminals like Ronnie Kray and serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper. Under the Mental Health Act, officials acting for the Justice Secretary must accept clinical advice to transfer prisoners to secure facilities.
Reactions and implications
Mark Fairhurst of the POA union, which represents prison and psychiatric hospital workers, told The Guardian: '[Rudakubana] is not mentally unwell. He is playing the system and is nothing more than evil. He should spend his entire sentence in solitary confinement staring at four walls.'
Fairhurst added: 'It is appalling to think that he will now enjoy all the freedoms a secure hospital is forced to give him and even more unjustified is the taxpayer actually paying him benefits because he is now classed as mentally unwell. This is a sickening development and my thoughts are with the families of the victims.'
Offenders in secure hospitals must engage with treatment and therapies before any return to prison or release. If they no longer require treatment, the Mental Health Act allows a swift return to prison.
