Southport killer questioned public's view of Taliban

Axel Rudakubana killed three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event in 2024

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana questioned whether the public's view of the Taliban was unfair in a conversation with family support workers, a public inquiry has been told.

The Southport Inquiry, at Liverpool Town Hall, heard details of a home visit by support worker Louise Lewis and her supervisor Sharon Barrett, from Lancashire County Council's child and family wellbeing service, on 4 October 2021.

Rudakubana, now 19, murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, in a knife attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on 29 July 2024.

Ms Barrett told the inquiry the teenager had spoken about politics during their visit to his home in Banks, Lancashire.

'Bad vision' of Taliban

She said: "He was talking about why different governments don't get punished for things when certain governments do?

"How governments work, why do certain governments affiliate with other countries? Why do people have a really bad vision of the Taliban when there are other governments, like the American government, who go into countries and can hurt people?

"He was basically talking about lots of different policies and procedures around what the governments were doing within England.

"There were all sorts of things coming out but it was very, sort of, scattergun and sporadic in what he was saying."

She said he was not being "extremist" but was asking questions.

Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquiry, asked: "He was showing no criticism of the Taliban and comparing them to the situation of the US and saying it was unfair?"

Ms Barrett replied: "I would say it was more questioning at that point."

The inquiry has previously heard that Rudakubana had been referred to the government's anti-terrorism programme Prevent on three occasions, with the cases closed every time.

There was no referral following his discussions with Ms Lewis and Ms Barrett.

The hearing was shown an email that Ms Barrett sent to Ms Lewis on 12 October 2021 with an updated list of banned terror organisations.

It contained the comment: "Think we need to look at this with Axel's parents."

She was asked if that had arisen following the home visit eight days before but she answered it had been based upon Rudakubana's history.

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

Ms Barrett was also asked about an email she had sent to a manager from the targeted youth service on 14 October 2021.

In that email, she wrote: "There are some concerns about how extreme some of Axel's views are and the risk that this could pose so we may also need to refer to Prevent."

Ms Barrett said she was "making sure" those who would be working with the teenager were aware of how "not extremist, but extreme" some of his views were and how that might be a risk factor in future work.

Mr Moss KC asked her whether this information "should have been shared with the counter-terrorism police... it could have been a useful piece of the jigsaw?".

She replied: "It could have."

Mr Moss KC added: "And, as the supervisor, it was your duty to ensure that it happened?"

She replied: "Yeah."

Ms Barrett also agreed with the suggestion that Rudakubana had dominated the narrative during the home visit.

Notes of the visit recorded that he said he was making "his own money via the internet".

Ms Barrett said she believed he had been doing internet research for family trees to make money.

She said his parents told her he was not unsupervised when he was using the internet.

The inquiry continues.