The devastating Southport mass stabbing that claimed three young lives could have been prevented if multiple agencies had acted on numerous warning signs, a public inquiry has revealed.
Systemic Failures Across Multiple Agencies
Axel Rudakubana, the 17-year-old responsible for the July 2024 attack that killed seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, six-year-old Bebe King, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar, was known to police, counter-terrorism officers, social services, and mental health professionals for five years before the atrocity.
His Christian parents, Alphonse Rudakubana and Laetitia Muzayire, were well aware of their son's violent tendencies and obsession with weapons. They knew he had purchased an arsenal online and had a history of carrying knives, yet they claimed they never believed he was capable of targeting a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
The inquiry, held at Liverpool Town Hall nearly a year after the murders, heard harrowing accounts from survivors and revealed a pattern of missed opportunities that allowed Rudakubana to slip through the net.
Early Warning Signs Ignored
Rudakubana's descent into violence began early. He was expelled from Range High School in Formby, Lancashire, in October 2019 after telling Childline he was carrying a knife to school with intent to harm another student.
When he transferred to The Acorns School, a pupil referral unit in Ormskirk, headteacher Joanne Hodson experienced what she described as a "visceral sense of dread" about the teenager. She told the inquiry: "He looked me in the eyes and said 'to use it' when asked why he took a knife to his former school."
Despite receiving a 10-month referral order in February 2020 for assault and weapons offences, Rudakubana's contact with youth offending teams was minimal during COVID lockdowns, with only three brief face-to-face sessions.
Counter-Terrorism Concerns Dismissed
Staff at The Acorns made three separate referrals to the government's Prevent programme between 2019 and 2021 after discovering Rudakubana was researching school mass shootings and describing the Manchester Arena attack as a "good battle".
Each time, his case was closed because he displayed no clear ideology, despite Home Office alerts about the threat posed by individuals interested in school shootings. By January 2022, teachers had "lost faith that anything would be done" and stopped making Prevent referrals.
In March 2022, police found Rudakubana on a bus with a kitchen knife. He told officers he wanted to stab someone and had considered poisoning people. Instead of being arrested, he was treated as vulnerable and taken home.
Mental Health Support Breakdown
Rudakubana's mental health assessment journey was equally troubled. First referred to Alder Hey hospital by his GP in August 2019, he waited 77 weeks for an autism diagnosis.
Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services refused to assess his risk to others without the diagnosis, and he ultimately received only anxiety treatment. Astonishingly, he was discharged from CAMHS on July 23, 2024 - just six days before the attack - with documentation stating he posed "no risk to others".
This assessment came despite staff knowing he hadn't left home for five months, refused to wash, and wasn't eating properly. The previous day, he had burst into his father's bedroom brandishing a kitchen knife identical to the one used in the mass stabbing.
Weapon Purchases and Parental Failures
The inquiry heard how Rudakubana used stolen ID to purchase three machetes and two kitchen knives online. His father intercepted two machetes but apparently accepted delivery of the kitchen knife used in the attack.
Mr Rudakubana admitted to the inquiry that fear of his son "prevented him from doing things a parent would normally do" and accepted this had "catastrophic consequences for which I'm desperately sorry".
Under his son's bed, parents discovered a bow and arrow, firecrackers, and materials suggesting attempts to create the deadly poison ricin.
Aftermath and Accountability
Rudakubana has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years. The parents of the murdered girls have called for everyone involved - including Rudakubana's parents and all agencies - to be held accountable.
Bebe King's parents, Lauren and Ben, stated: "It's been painfully clear that Bebe was failed at every possible turn."
Lancashire Police Assistant Chief Constable Mark Winstanley warned the inquiry that many young men are viewing similar material to Rudakubana and expressed fears that another attack could occur without systemic changes.
The inquiry chairman, Sir Adrian Fulford, aims to deliver his report on the first phase by spring, but for the victims' families, the evidence has already painted a clear picture of preventable tragedy.
