“Catastrophic” failures by the parents of the Southport killer and various agencies meant clear chances to prevent the 2024 dance class child murders were missed, a public inquiry has concluded, reports the BBC.
Axel Rudakubana, 17, should have been detained before he walked into the Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop and stabbed three girls, inquiry chairman Sir Adrian Fulford found.
Sir Adrian said if his parents had done “what they morally ought to have done” and reported the suspicious behaviour he had displayed, he would not have been free on the day of the attack.
But a “merry-go-round of referrals, assessments, case-closures and hand-offs” meant no agency took the lead or understood the danger he posed.
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar were killed in the attack while eight other children and two adults were severely wounded.
In a 760-page final report – following Phase One of the inquiry into how Rudakubana was able to carry out the attack – Sir Adrian called for the end of what he described as a “culture” of agencies passing responsibility between each other or downgrading their own involvement in cases like Rudakubana’s.
He described it as the “single most important conclusion” of his report, adding: “This failure lies at the heart of why (Rudakubana) was able to mount the attack, despite so many warning signs of his capacity for fatal violence.”
Those criticised included Lancashire Police, the government’s counter-extremism service Prevent, various NHS mental health services, Lancashire County Council, elements of children’s social care, youth offending services and a broader “multi-agency” approach.
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