Government announces inquiry into Southport attack

The government has announced a public inquiry into the Southport attack after it emerged that the attacker Axel Rudakubana had been referred to Prevent three times.

Rudakubana has pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. He also pleaded guilty ro producing the biological toxin ricin and possession of an al-Qaeda training manual (a terrorism offence).

The attacker had not been expected to enter a guilty plea and a trial was expected to begin on Tuesday.

Rudakubana killed Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in July last year. The attack has not been declared a terrorist incident.

The attack was not treated as terrorism, as no one ideology was uncovered. As well as possessing the al-Qaeda training manual, Rudakubana also accessed information about the IRA and was said to have an obsession with despotic figures including Genghis Khan and Adolf Hitler.

Chief Constable Serena Kennedy, of Merseyside Police said: “The investigation team has worked solidly to build up a strong evidential case to provide to the CPS and although we will never know why he did it. What we can say is that he was a man with a unhealthy obsession with extreme violence. We know that he had researched numerous documents online which show that obsession. What we can say is that from all those documents no one ideology was uncovered, and that is why this was not treated as terrorism."

Head of Counter Terrorism Policing Matt Jukes added: “Throughout this complex and large-scale investigation, we have been relentless in our pursuit of evidence as to why he attacked defenceless children on that day.

“This has included specialist support in forensic examinations of his home address and digital devices, with witness interviews and intelligence gathering.

“Despite that we have not been able to identify why he carried out these attacks.

“Our work with Merseyside Police has uncovered a wide interest in conflict, violence, genocide, and terrorism, and that he had accessed a wide range of online material related to these topics."

To avoid jeopardising legal proceedings or prejudicing a possible jury trial, details of the attack and the attacker could not be released ahead of his guilty plea - this is in line with the normal rules of the British justice system.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper said: "The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been clear that important information about the perpetrator’s past could not be made public before today to avoid jeopardising the legal proceedings or prejudicing the possible jury trial, in line with the normal rules of the British justice systems. Nothing has been more important than securing justice for the families."

Following the guilty plea, it has been revealed that Rudakubana had begun behaving violently in Year 9 and was excluded from School at the age of 13. He attacked a fellow pupil with a hockey stick, breaking their wrist and had to be restrained by a teacher.

Rudakubana had been referred to Prevent three times between December 2019 and April 2021 when he was aged 13 and 14. It is believed this was because of concerns about his general obsession with violence. He was known to the police, courts and social services.

Lancashire Child Safeguarding Partnership said that Lancashire Constabulary responded to five calls from his home address, between October 2019 and May 2022, relating to concerns about his behaviour.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced that during the summer, the Home Office had commissioned an urgent Prevent Learning Review into the three referrals and further details of that review are due to be published this week, as well as new reforms to the Prevent programme.

The government has now announced that a public inquiry will be held into the attacks to establish the truth behind what happened and what needs to change.

Jonathan Hall KC, the government's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has said that there needs to be a review of Prevent that looks at the mechanisms for dealing with people obsessed by violence, not ideology.

Prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer said: "Britain now faces a new threat. Terrorism has changed.

"In the past, the predominant threat was highly organised groups with clear political intent. Groups like Al-Qaeda.  

"That threat of course remains. But now, alongside that we also see acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom, accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety.  

"Sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups. But fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake."

This is a trend that those in Counter Terrorism will have been aware of for a while and was highlighted late last year in Ken McCallum's annual update as director general of MI5.