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Floral tributes near the scene where three children were fatally stabbed by Axel Rudakubana in Southport James Speakman

Southport: UK police did not think Axel Rudakubana would be radicalised, leaked report shows

Three separate referrals were made to the UK Government’s anti-terror programme, Prevent, about Rudakubana’s behaviour in the years before the attack.

UK COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICERS did not believe Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was “in danger of being radicalised”, leaks from a British Home Office report have revealed.

The Prevent learning review will criticise counterterrorism officers for failing to properly take into account Rudakubana’s obsession with extreme violence when it is released, the Sunday Times has reported.

Prevent is part of the UK Government’s counter-terrorism strategy and aims to reduce the threat to the UK from terrorism by stopping people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

While the Sunday Times does not have a copy of the report, it has been made aware of some of its findings.

Three separate referrals were made to Prevent about Rudakubana’s behaviour in the years before the attack.

After the first referral, and following an interview with Rudakubana, his father and teachers at his school, the report said: “Case closed. Concerns related to Prevent were explored. Did not appear to be linked to an ideology or vulnerability to radicalisation.”

A second referral to Prevent also found “no radicalisation concerns identified”, and a third referral was also closed.

A source with knowledge of the review told the Sunday Times: “He was looking at news articles about mass shootings during IT class and trying to speak to his teacher about it. The counterterrorism officers decided he had an interest in news and current affairs, but was not in danger of being radicalised.”

18-year-old Rudakubana was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 52 years on Thursday – one of the highest minimum terms on record – for murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a dance class in Southport on 29 July last year.

download Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were killed in the knife attack. Merseyside Police Merseyside Police

He also attempted to murder eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.

British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has already announced that a public inquiry will be held to look at any “missed opportunities” to identify Rudakubana’s murderous intent and ordered a “thorough review” of the Prevent referrals.

Writing in the Sunday Times, she said a review of referral thresholds to Prevent was under way.

This will look in particular at individuals “obsessed with school massacres” and also “Islamist extremism”, she said.

“Where individuals are suspected to be neurodiverse, interventions should not stop because they are awaiting assessments, ignoring any risks they might pose,” she added.

Rudakubana was diagnosed by local health authorities with an autism spectrum disorder.

Cooper also said there was a “serious problem” when cases did not pass the Prevent threshold but other agencies, such as social services and mental health, failed to step in.

download (2) Axel Rudakubana was sentenced to life with a minimum of 52 years for the murder of three girls at a dance class in Southport Merseyside Police Merseyside Police

As well as three separate referrals being made to Prevent about Rudakubana’s behaviour, there were also six separate calls to police.

Rudakubana attacked a pupil with a hockey stick, used school computers to look up the London Bridge terror outrage and carried a knife on a bus and into class before he carried out the Southport murders.

Knives, archery arrows and ricin, a biological toxin 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide, were found when police raided Rudakubana’s home after the attack, with evidence suggesting the equipment needed for the substance was bought in 2022.

-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper

 

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