Axel Rudakubana’s guilty plea at Liverpool Crown Court means the child murderer will no longer stand trial over the Southport killings.
But the decision not to classify the Southport attack as terrorism has sparked controversy, with Nigel Farage today accusing Sir Keir Starmer and the police of “a gigantic cover-up”.
It has emerged that Rudakubana, 18, was referred to the government’s anti-extremism scheme Prevent three times before the murders, with concerns raised over his fixation with violence.
The Prime Minister admitted the country will “rightly demand answers” over how the state “failed” to protect the children who were murdered, adding the Government will leave “no stone unturned in that pursuit”.
From left to right, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, who were stabbed to death by Axel Rudakubana (Photo: Merseyside Police/AFP)In a dramatic change of plea, Rudakubana admitted fatally stabbing three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July, the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults.
He also pleaded guilty to a terrorism offence of possession of an al-Qaeda manual, and to production of ricin, a biological toxin.
On the day of the Southport stabbings, Merseyside Police announced a 17-year-old had been arrested, but that “the incident is not currently being treated as terror-related”.
Amid disinformation swirling about the identity of the attacker and claims he was an asylum seeker who had arrived in a small boat, the force took the unusual step of confirming the then-suspect had been born in the UK.
After he was charged with murdering Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, with a kitchen knife, an anonymity order was lifted at Liverpool Crown Court and Rudakubana’s identity was made public.
The claims about the killer’s background fuelled days of rioting, which has so far led to nearly 450 people being sentenced.
Ricin, al-Qaeda charges revealed
In October, police revealed that Rudakubana had also been charged with production of ricin and possession of “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual”, with the latter charge classified as a terrorism offence.
They added that ricin wasn’t found at the dance studio where Rudakubana launched his stabbing attack.
Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to killing three young girls in a stabbing spree last year that sparked the UK’s most violent riots in a decade (Photo: Merseyside Police / AFP)But in a statement, Merseyside Police Chief Constable Chief Constable Serena Kennedy reiterated that the Southport attack was still not being treated as a terrorist incident.
She said: “The matter for which Axel Rudakubana has been charged with under the Terrorism Act does not require motive to be established.
“For a matter to be declared a terrorist incident, motivation would need to be established.”
It’s not clear when police started investigating the Al-Qaeda manual or the substance found at Rudakubana’s home, later confirmed by Porton Down scientists to be ricin.
According to the Terrorism Act, for an attack to be declared as terrorism, it must have been carried out “for the purpose of political, religious, racial or ideological cause”.
Speaking to The i Paper, Jonathan Hall, KC, the independent reviewer of terrorist legislation, said of the Rudakubana case: “The question is not whether he has been convicted of a terrorism offence, he obviously has.
“But the question is whether the murder and attempted murder was motivated by terrorism.
“The approach of the CPS appears to have been that there’s not enough evidence to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the reason he carried out the murder and the attempted murders was to pursue an ideological cause.
“I can’t speak for the CPS, but my interpretation is that the ricin was not used and the Al-Qaeda manual was not used for the attack.”
Rudakubana also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of eight other children and to the attempted murder of Leanne Lucas and Jonathan Hayes (Photo: James Speakman/PA Wire)Prosecutors were likely to outline to the judge at Thursday’s sentencing what they think they can prove Rudakubana’s motivation was when carrying out the attack, he added.
Mr Hall pointed to the Magdeburg Christmas market attack in Germany, which left five people dead, as an example of an attack that bore the hallmarks of an Islamist, but was allegedly carried out by an anti-Islam and immigrant activist.
“Obviously, prosecution didn’t feel they could prove in a criminal court that he [Rudakubana] was doing it because of some jihadi reason,” he added.
Killer referred to Prevent three times
Rudakubana was referred to the Government’s counter-radicalisation scheme Prevent three times, the Guardian has reported.
According to the newspaper, one referral is understood to have related to concerns over his potential interest in the killing of children in a school massacre.
While his interest in violence was assessed by Prevent as potentially concerning, he was not considered suitable for the scheme as he was not deemed to be motivated by a terrorist ideology or pose a terrorist danger, it is claimed.
In a statement after he pleaded guilty, the CPS said Rudakubana had a “sustained interest in death and violence”
Mr Hall said he didn’t see that the case indicated there was a problem with terrorism legislation.
But he added: “There is a question about how Prevent deals with people who, if the decision is, they’re not really on the way to becoming a terrorist, but they’re just obsessed by violence, who then deals with them?”
The CPS, Merseyside and counter-terrorism police were contacted for comment.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Why the Southport murders are not considered to be a terror attack )
Also on site :
- Today's Wordle Hint, Answer for 1410, Tuesday, April 29, 2025
- The Beths Announce North American Tour Dates Alongside New Single, ‘Metal’
- Four dead after car crashes into after-school camp in US state of Illinois