Jobs must go over Southport failings - lawyer says

The lawyer representing the families of the three girls murdered in the Southport attack has called for people to lose their jobs over failings in dealing with the killer.

Chris Walker told BBC North West Tonight the level of failure by "a large number of state organisations and state agencies" had been "jaw-droppingly bad".

He said he and the families of Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King and Alice Aguiar, who were killed in the 2024 knife attack, expected disciplinary proceedings and "sackings at the end of that".

As the first stage of the inquiry into the attack concluded, the girls' families condemned the killer's parents for "staying silent" when they knew how dangerous their son was.

The families released statements saying they felt the attacker's parents had failed to take responsibility and the evidence had shown that "this tragedy was not inevitable".

The killer's parents Alphonse Rudakubana and Laetitia Muzayire, apologised to the families at the hearing, saying they were "profoundly sorry" for their "failure".

But Mr Walker said the apology was not accepted by the families.

"Their apology purports to be sincere but the reality is, in the preceding five years, their failures to allow evil to live within their home and do nothing about it is quite frankly unacceptable," he said.

Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar were killed in the 29 July 2024 attack

He called for a legal framework to be put in place in future so that parents who abdicated parental responsibility "with homicidal maniacs like him should face criminal sanctions".

This would be something he would be presenting in phase two of the inquiry, he added.

In their statement, Alex and Sergio Aguiar said the system had failed their beloved Alice, Bebe and Elsie.

Mr Walker told BBC Breakfast that "virtually every agency" failed in dealing with the killer.

"It's quite clear to me that if one person in the preceding five years had done their job properly then the attacks would have been prevented," he said.

He said he spoke to the families every day and could see the toll the inquiry was taking on them but added that "to date, we have faith in the inquiry".

A report from phase one of the inquiry is expected by early 2026. The second phase of the inquiry is expected to focus on the risk posed by young people with a fixation or obsession with acts of extreme violence.