Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed “we will leave no stone unturned” in the pursuit to answer “grave questions” on why the girls were not protected by the state, ITV News North of England Correspondent Rachel Townsend reports
Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was known to multiple authorities in the years before he went on to kill three girls at a dance class, the home secretary revealed as she announced a public inquiry into the attack.
Yvette Cooper said the inquiry will “get to the truth about what happened and what needs to change”.
She said Rudakubana was referred three times to the Prevent programme, the government’s anti-extremism programme, aged 13 and 14, and also had contact with police, the courts, the youth justice system, social services and mental health services before he went on the “meticulously planned rampage”.
“Yet between them, those agencies failed to identify the terrible risk and danger to others that he posed,” she added.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer will deliver a statement in Downing Street at 8.30am on Tuesday following the announcement of a public inquiry.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died following the attack in The Hart Space on a small business park in the seaside town shortly before midday on July 29 last year.
Rudakubana, now 18, admitted their murders on Monday, as well as the attempted murders of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
A father of a pupil who attended Range High School with Rudakubana described how his daughter had seen the killer chasing another pupil with a hockey stick.
It was shortly following this incident that he was permanently excluded from the school, where parents have told ITV News that he was also badly bullied.
ITV News also understands that it was widely rumoured that Rudakubana had a ‘kill list’ of pupils he wanted to murder.
Questions have been raised about all of the authorities and institutions that engaged with Axel Rudakubana prior to his horrific attack, ITV News UK Editor Paul Brand reports
Authorities, including the police, have denied withholding information about the attacks.
Officers “wanted to say much more” but were advised not to as it could risk justice being delivered, Merseyside Police said.
Full details of the prosecution case will be made public when Rudakubana is sentenced on Thursday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Cooper defended prosecutors and said they had been clear that disclosing “important information” about Rudakubana’s past could jeopardise a fair trial.
Lancashire Child Safeguarding Partnership said Rudakubana became known to services in 2019 when he took a knife to school, which he did not use.
He physically assaulted a child with a hockey stick in December of that year, they added.
An independent child safeguarding practice review has been commissioned to look at the role of each agency involved with Rudakubana and his family.
Lancashire Constabulary had several interactions with Rudakubana between October 2019 and May 2022, including responding to five calls from his home address, and on each occasion making referrals to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub, the spokesman said.
Starmer admitted earlier on Monday that the “state failed” to protect the three girls.
The government’s political rivals, including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK’s Nigel Farage, have called on Starmer to reveal who at the heart of the government knew what, and when they knew it about Rudakubana, following his guilty plea.
Starmer vowed “we will leave no stone unturned” in the pursuit to answer “grave questions” on why the girls were not protected by the state.
In a statement on Monday, the prime minister said: “Our thoughts are with the families of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, and the families of everyone affected, who will be saved the ordeal of a protracted trial.
“The news that the vile and sick Southport killer will be convicted is welcome.
“It is also a moment of trauma for the nation, and there are grave questions to answer as to how the state failed in its ultimate duty to protect these young girls.
“Britain will rightly demand answers, and we will leave no stone unturned in that pursuit.
“At the centre of this horrific event, there is still a family and community grief that is raw, a pain that not even justice can ever truly heal. Although no words today can ever truly convey the depths of that pain, I want the families to know that our thoughts are with them and everyone in Southport affected by this barbaric crime.
“The whole nation grieves with them.”
Ministers must give a “complete account” of who “knew what and when” about Rudakubana, Tory leader Badenoch said, as she piled pressure on the government to account for how it responded to the Southport attacks.
On X, she added: “This case is still in court and there are, properly, limits on what can be said at this stage.
“But once it concludes on Thursday with sentencing, there are many important questions the authorities will need to answer about the handling of this case and the flow of information.”
Farage had earlier called for Cooper to appear in Parliament and answer MPs’ questions about Rudakubana.
He said: “I think that the government are responsible for the most astonishing cover-up.
“I think that we need an apology from the home secretary and an explanation as to why we have been denied the basic truth.”
The Reform leader’s “cover-up” claim relates to Rudakubana’s admission he possessed an al-Qaida training manual in PDF form, something not revealed in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
In the hours after the stabbing, information spread online which claimed the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK on a small boat.
Unrest erupted across the country in the wake of the killings, with mosques and hotels used for asylum seekers among the locations targeted.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it would present “relevant details of the defendant’s past” to the court on Thursday when Rudakubana will be sentenced.
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