Public inquiry into Southport attack announced

Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice da Silva Aguiar, and Bebe King were stabbed along with eight other children and two adults

A public inquiry will be held into the Southport attacks, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced.

It comes after 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to killing three girls - six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar.

Cooper said their families "needed answers" about he lead-up to the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the town last year.

Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack, had been referred to the Prevent programme three times, Cooper said, between December 2019 and April 2021 when he was aged 13 and 14 years old.

The killer was already known to police, the courts and social services, she said, "yet between them, those agencies failed to identify the terrible risk and danger to others that he posed".

Rudakubana admitted 16 charges, including the murder of the three girls on 29 July last year, with not guilty pleas entered on his behalf at a court hearing in December last year.

He also pleaded guilty to the attempted murders of eight children and two adults, possession of a knife on the day of the murders, producing a biological toxin, ricin, and the possession of an al-Qaeda training manual - a terror offence.

There has been criticism of the authorities withholding information about Rudakubana's interest in violence and terrorism from the Conservatives and Reform UK.

However, Cooper said lawyers at the Crown Prosecution Service had been clear these details "could not be made public before today to avoid jeopardising the legal proceedings or prejudicing the possible jury trial, in line with the normal rules of the British justice systems".

Now there has been a guilty plea, Cooper said "it is essential that the families and the people of Southport can get answers about how this terrible attack could take place and about why this happened to their children".

She added that during the summer, the Home Office had commissioned an urgent Prevent Learning Review into the three referrals concerning Rudakubana and further details of that review would be published this week, alongside new reforms to the Prevent programme.

Cooper acknowledged "growing numbers of teenagers" were being referred to the Prevent scheme, or investigated by counter-terror police or other agencies, due to fears about "serious violence and extremism".

"We need to face up to why this has been happening and what needs to change," she added.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp welcomed the public inquiry into the "devastating attack", because the girls' families "deserve answers... to ensure this never happens again".

"There are many questions that remain unanswered about what went wrong," he said.

"We also need to know who in Government knew what and when, as well as why the authorities may have withheld some information from the public.

"As Jonathan Hall, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, has said in the past being open at an early stage is important to maintaining public confidence."

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed the handling of the Southport case "one of the worst cover-ups" he had seen in his lifetime, complaining he had asked questions about whether Rudakubana was known to the authorities but was given "no answer" and had instead been "completely vilified".

Following the court proceedings, Merseyside Police chief constable Serena Kennedy denied there had been any cover-up.

She said: "We have been accused of purposely withholding information - this is absolutely not the case.

"From day one we have been as open as we possibly could and have constantly been in touch with the CPS who have advised us on what information could be released.

"We have wanted to say much more to show we were being open and transparent, but we have been advised throughout that we couldn't do so as it would risk justice being delivered."

"We will never know why he did it," she said, adding: "What we can say is that from all those documents no one ideology was uncovered, and that is why this was not treated as terrorism."

The BBC has been told that before the attack, Rudakubana had been referred to Prevent because of concerns about his general obsession with violence.

In December 2019, Rudakubana - then aged 13 - returned to the school from which he had been expelled and assaulted a pupil with a hockey stick, breaking their wrist.

In the same year he had told NSPCC's Childline he was going to take a knife into school because of racial bullying, which breached their threshold for a referral to local authorities.

Speaking outside court on Monday, Ursula Doyle, the CPS prosecutor, said Rudakubana was "a young man with a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence - he's shown no signs of remorse".

Matt Jukes, the head of counterterrorism policing, said a thorough investigation will take place now Rudakubana has pleaded guilty.

"The same determination we have shown in the investigation will now be applied to examining how the range of agencies involved with Rudakubana did not come together effectively to identify and deal with the risk he posed," he said.

Rudakubana is due to be sentenced on Thursday and is expected to be given a life sentence.

However, he cannot be sentenced to a whole-life term for his crimes because he is under the age of 21.