Southport killer's dad told school he was a 'good boy'

Police scenes-of-crime officers at the scene in Southport where three girls were fatally stabbed at a dance class.Image source, PA Media
Image caption,

The Southport attacker was jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years in January.

  • Published

The father of the Southport killer begged his headteacher not to expel his son after he admitted carrying a knife to school and claimed he was a "good boy", a public inquiry heard.

Axel Rudakubana murdered three young girls and wounded eight other children and two adults in an attack at a dance class in Southport last summer.

Earlier the public inquiry into the attack heard from Michael McGarry, the headteacher at Range High School in Formby.

Rudakubana was expelled from there in October 2019 after calling Childline and admitting taking a knife to school.

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and six-year-old Bebe King were murdered at the Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop on 29 July 2024.

The inquiry was shown an email from Rudakubana's father, Alphonse, responding to his son's exclusion.

Mr Rudakubana said his son had carried the knife because of a "gang culture" at the school.

Bunches of flowers and teddies lined up against a wall next to a road sign reading Tithebarn Road.Image source, PA Media
Image caption,

There was an outpouring of floral tributes after the Southport knife attacks

In the email, the father said: "One must be terrified to carry a weapon, knowing it is extremely dangerous. He deserves credit to have reported himself to carry a knife.

"And with it, a second chance to stay at the school he wishes to.

"He is a good boy. I know him."

Mr Rudakubana said the school had taken "the shortcut option" of blaming the victim.

Giving evidence at the Southport Inquiry earlier, Mr McGarry said when told he was being excluded, the teenager had "appeared to show no remorse, regret or emotion as if this was a normal proportionate action."

Mr McGarry said he did not believe Rudakubana was being bullied.

He said there had been "name-calling and verbal abuse" with one pupil in particular, "a bit of tit for tat".

Mr McGarry also told the inquiry about an incident in December 2019 when Axel went back to the school and attacked a pupil with a hockey stick.

A large knife was also found in his bag at that time.

Mr McGarry said when the knife was put on his desk after the police had been called, Rudakubana "didn't seem very concerned about it".

"There was no sense of shock. I found his reaction quite bizarre. It was quite matter of fact," he said.

'Inadequate and wrong'

Earlier, the inquiry heard a mental health assessment carried out six days before the attack, which found the killer posed no risk to others, had been "wholly inappropriate and wrong".

It was told the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) had overly focused on the risk Rudakubana, then 17, posed to himself rather than to others.

Tina Irani, an independent consultant child and adolescent forensic psychiatrist, said the assessments were "not adequate".

Left to right: Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Aguiar in school uniformsImage source, Family photos
Image caption,

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

Dr Irani was asked about her assessment of how the local CAMHS service and the local Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (FCAMHS) - specifically designed for youths posing a risk to others - had treated him.

Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquiry, put it to Dr Irani that a CAMHS assessment of the killer six days before the attack which read "poses risk to others: none" was "wholly inadequate and wrong".

Dr Irani agreed it was.

By that stage, a number of agencies were aware that he had taken a knife to school and had attacked a fellow pupil with a hockey stick.

However, some details of the knife incidents were not included in a CAMHS assessment.

Mr Moss asked Dr Irani for her opinion of the quality of the risk assessment [by CAMHS] "bearing in mind the seriousness of the events [Rudakubana] had been involved in".

She replied: "That isn't a risk assessment - that just highlights what concerns were at the time. So that's not really a risk assessment."

Dr Irani agreed with Mr Moss that "what ended up happening was that CAMHS focused especially in the later years - 2022, 2023, 2024 - on the risk to [Rudakubana] and not enough on the risk [he] posed to others."

She said she wanted to make it clear that "not every young person [with mental health problems] needs an extensive risk assessment, but where there are indications that this should be completed".

She agreed the killer fell within that category "by some margin".

'Fascination with violence'

Dr Irani suggested the inquiry consider whether there should be new laws to allow parents and agencies to monitor the online activity of young people with a fascination for violence.

The inquiry has previously heard the attacker had watched violently graphic videos on the internet.

In her report for the inquiry, Dr Irani said there were no laws about internet monitoring unless a person had been charged with a criminal offence.

Suggesting that because young people are more adept online than their parents, Dr Irani said inquiry chairman Sir Adrian Fulford should consider - where there are specific safeguarding or risk concerns - whether a legal framework could support families monitoring and supervising their children's internet use.

She said he should "give consideration to compulsory powers to include monitoring what young people who have a fascination with violence might be doing online".

Dr Irani agreed with Sir Adrian when he said this would mean "the ability of clinicians to walk up the stairs and knock on the bedroom door [of a young person's room] and insist on [seeing] things."

The inquiry continues.

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