How the Southport attacker could have been stopped

Warning, this report contains details you may find distressing.

Those involved in the care and monitoring of the Southport killer "fundamentally failed" to appreciate the "evident high level of danger" he posed - leading to an "act of chilling brutality", an inquiry has found.

Axel Rudakubana, 19, was consistently passed between organisations with a "disturbing lack of clarity as to who, if anyone, was the lead" in ensuring the risk he posed was communicated.

The parents of the teenager, who was jailed for a minimum of 52 years, also had an "irresponsible and harmful attitude" to sharing information, meaning they did not do what they "morally ought to have done" and "report the clear escalation in risk".

All this - the report said, meant his attack on a children’s dance class “could and should have been prevented”.

AR - as he has been known throughout the inquiry - murdered Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on 29 July 2024.

The killer, then 17, also attempted to murder eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas, and businessman John Hayes.

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