Southport killer was briefed on counter-terrorism plan several times before attack
Government sources told the BBC that Southport killer Axel Rudakubana had been referred to the government’s counter-terrorism program several times before the attack because of his general obsession with violence.
On Monday an 18-year-old man admitted stabbing three young girls to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last July.
He pleaded guilty to charges including the attempted murder of eight children and two adults, production of biological poison, ricin and possession of al-Qaeda training manuals – a terrorist offence.
Despite this, police never considered his case terrorism-related because he did not adhere to any ideology such as Islamism or racial hatred, but appeared to be motivated by an interest in extreme violence.
After pleading guilty to his crimes the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) described him as “a young man with a despicable and persistent interest in death and violence” and said he had shown no signs of remorse.
Rudakubana was described as having an unstable character, having anger issues and prone to acting out with violence.
He attended Range High School in Formby where he began having problems with violence in Year 9.
Fellow students remember his obsession with autocratic figures including Genghis Khan and Adolf Hitler. He is also known to have obtained information about the IRA.
Rudakubana was expelled from school in October 2019 at the age of 13, after which he returned to school in December 2019 with a hockey stick and attacked a student, breaking his wrist. He had to be stopped by a teacher.
Following this, he attended The Acorns School, which provides specialist education for people with additional needs, and then Pressfield High School and Specialist College.
He attended sixth form there for only a few days and was largely dealt with by home visits. The school would sometimes ask for police visits.
Last August it was revealed that he had an “autism spectrum disorder diagnosis” and that he was “unwilling to leave the house and communicate with family for some time”.
Rudakubana was born in Cardiff in 2006 to Rwandan parents, and moved to the Southport area in 2013.
He took acting classes at the Pauline Quirk Academy and appeared in a promotional video for BBC Children in Need in 2018, which has since been said to have no connection with him.
In the wake of the Southport attack, the BBC removed the video from its websites.
Neighbors on the street where he and his family lived in Banks, West Lancashire, about 6 miles (9 km) from Southport, told the BBC that police visited the house several times in the months before the Southport attack Was.
On the day of the attack, before catching a taxi to the dance studio, a doorbell camera captured him walking outside his family home, where he would commit the stabbing.
6-year-old Babe King, 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and 9-year-old Alice DeSilva Aguiar were all killed.
Initially, not guilty pleas were entered for Rudakubana after he refused to speak during the hearing, but these pleas were changed to guilty on the first day of the hearing on Monday.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday and is expected to be given a life sentence.
However, he cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes because he is under 21 years of age.
