Southport killer Axel Rudakubana tried to harm teachers and fellow pupils and was referred to the government’s scheme to stop terrorists three times – but still left free to murder.
The 18-year-old pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial today to the murders of three girls at a Taylor Swift themed dance class on July 29, 2024.
As well as admitting to murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, he pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of eight other children, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
Rudakubana also pleaded guilty to possession of a knife on the day of the attack, production of a biological toxin – ricin – on or before July 29, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.
Billed as a stage school ‘superstar’ when he appeared as Doctor Who in a BBC Children in Need advert aged only 11, the first chilling warning that he posed a serious threat to other children took place just two years later.
When he was about 13, a hooded Rudakubana burst into his school while barred from the premises for bringing in a knife, brandished a hockey stick he had produced from his backpack and began attacking pupils.
The raging future killer – dubbed a ‘ticking timebomb’ by one former fellow pupil – was only disarmed after being bravely overpowered by a teacher.
At the time of the hockey stick attack, Rudakubana – born in Cardiff to parents who moved to the UK from Rwanda – had been suspended for bringing a knife into Range High School in Formby, former classmates told the Mail.
Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial today to the murders of three girls at a Taylor Swift themed dance class on July 29, 2024.
Rudakubana may have chosen to target Range High School, in Formby, Merseyside, because he had been a former pupil but left after a series of disturbing incidents several years earlier
Just as with his murderous assault on the Southport dance studio on July 29, he took advantage of doors being unlocked.
While it is understood that one boy suffered a broken wrist when he attacked classmates, it is not clear whether police were informed.
However, officials were well aware that Rudakubana could pose a risk and he was referred three times to the government’s deradicalisation scheme Prevent, sources confirmed today.
One of the referrals is thought to follow concerns about Rudakubana’s potential interest in the killing of children in a school massacre, but it was deemed that there was no counter terrorism risk.
His behaviour, including his apparent interest in violence, was assessed by Prevent as potentially concerning.
But he was deemed not to be motivated by a terrorist ideology or pose a terrorist danger and was therefore not considered suitable for the counter-radicalisation scheme.
Rudakubana was first referred to Prevent in 2019 when he was 13. Two more referrals were made in 2021, all when was a school child living in Lancashire.
Each time he was assessed as not being a counter terrorism risk and therefore not suitable for further investigation by the counter-radicalisation programme Channel, which handles Prevent referrals where there is a significant risk of that person being drawn into terrorism.
A court artist’s sketch of Rudakubana appearing at Liverpool Crown Court this morning
The Mail has learnt that experts dismissed the case as they were reassured that he was already getting help from other services, including mental health services.
Rudakubana is understood to have later spent time in a children’s home.
But in the run-up to the dance studio murders, the then 17-year-old was spending most of his time at his parents’ house in the village of Banks, on the outskirts of Southport.
After Rudakubana was charged with three counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder, Liverpool Crown Court was told had been diagnosed with autism and been ‘unwilling to leave the house and communicate with family for a period of time’.
But the horrifying truth of what he was doing in his bedroom was only revealed following his arrest.
On another occasion, pupils filmed him attempting to attack a teacher during a lesson, having to be restrained by three classmates.
One former schoolfriend described him to the Guardian as ‘a ticking timebomb’.
Analysis of a suspicious substance found in a sealed container in his room showed he had been manufacturing the biological toxin ricin.
As little as 0.5mg can kill a human.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, was one of the three children killed in the knife attack in Southport
Bebe King, six, was also killed in the knife attack at The Hart Space in Southport last July
Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, was among the three little girls killed in the attack in Southport
Rudakubana had also downloaded terrorist material in the form of a document entitled Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al Qaeda Training Manual.
The academic analysis, written by a former CIA officer, quotes the original training document at length. It is an offence under terror legislation to download or possess it without reasonable excuse.
However, both disturbing discoveries were kept secret for three months when Rudakubana was finally charged under both the Biological Weapons Act 1974 and the Terrorism Act 2000.
While police have been at pains to stress that the dance studio attack had not been declared terror-related, Tory MPs demanded to know why the public had ‘not been told the truth’ sooner.
His family moved to Britain from Rwanda in 2002, initially living in Cardiff, where Axel was born.
They then moved to the Merseyside seaside resort of Southport in 2013, where his father Alphonse worked as a taxi driver.
