Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss has been asking about Rudakubana's claim that in 2019 he had carried a knife into Range High School because he was being bullied.

Mr Rudakubana said he now believed he had been "too accepting" of his son's bullying claim.

However, he said his son appeared to be scared to go to school, and would constantly ask him to talk to teachers about being bullied.

In May 2019 he said Rudakubana had claimed to have been "thrown" by another boy in school.

Mr Moss said: "You now accept that [your son's] response to the alleged bullying, carrying knives into school, was wholly disproportionate and inappropriate?"

Mr Rudakubana said: "I agree with you."

However, Mr Moss suggested that at the time Mr Rudakubana did not feel his son had overreacted.

The inquiry heard Mr Rudakubana had found out his son had admitted carrying a knife to school when police came to the house in October 2019.

The teenager had said he "intended to use the knife".

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss has been asking Alphonse Rudakubana about his older son, Dion, telling a friend in 2022 that he was worried his brother could kill his father.

Dion had written: "My brother doesn't really show mercy, so my dad just has to try not to die."

Mr Rudakubana said he believed his older son may have been exaggerating to his friends.

He said by that point Rudakubana had not used a weapon against him.

Referring to Dion giving evidence to the inquiry about the situation at home, Mr Rudakubana said: "I actually cried yesterday, I didn't know how [Dion] was internalising things, that's how his experience was."

Mr Moss said "in fairness" he should note that Mr Rudakubana had paid for private counselling sessions for his son, had taken parenting sessions in 2020, and sought financial help from the local authority.

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss refers to a comment the killer made to social services accusing his father of hitting his older son, Dion.

He said both Dion and Mr Rudakubana had confirmed this was not true.

Mr Moss suggested this showed his son was capable of being "an outright liar" to those in authority.

"He could lie sometimes, but I won't call him an outright liar. When it suited him."

Mr Moss moved on to an incident in June 2023 when a machete was delivered to the house.

In his statement, Mr Rudakubana had written that by that point his son had threatened to kill him on more than one occasion.

Mr Moss asked on which other occasion, other than the oil-pouring incident.

Mr Rudakubana said: "There was a time when he started to fantasise a lot, talking about countries in Africa, and then he would say that he will be a president there and take me and put me in one of their jails."

He said he did not take these comments as seriously as the day he poked him in the chest.

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss tells Alphonse Rudakubana that the inquiry had been told, including by him, that he used to smack his children on the bottom as a punishment when they were younger.

He accepted that was true.

He said he only responded with physical violence to his son's behaviour as an older teenage on one occasion in January 2021, in response to Rudakubana kicking him in the testicles.

Mr Rudakubana said: "He assaulted me that day."

The inquiry heard this was after his son became enraged that his father had cut the grass over where his pet hamster was buried, and tried to break his father's laptop.

Mr Rudakubana said he "slapped" his son on that occasion.

Mr Moss said this incident was reported to a Child and Family Support Worker but Mr Rudakubana did not mention slapping his son.

He said: "I don't know, it's a long time ago, I don't remember what I was thinking so I would be speculating."

Mr Moss suggested this shows that "on occasion you have the capability to be less than honest".

Mr Rudakubana said that is a "big conclusion to make" from that incident.

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss continued to read from Alphonse Rudakubana's statement, which said his failure to control his son meant he accepted his "share of the responsibility".

The barrister suggested that despite his fear of his son he should have at least tried to exert more control over his internet activity.

Mr Rudakubana said he had "tried" but his son was "violent".

Mr Moss asked why he did not impose parental controls over the home network to stop him looking at "gory, violent behaviour of the most degrading kind".

The killer's father replied: "I didn't because I wouldn't have been able to manage his destructive behaviour. I wouldn't do that, because if he couldn't access it he would have asked me why and he would have forced me to do it again."

Mr Moss suggested this is an example of him "giving in far too easily". He also suggested Mr Rudakubana should have been "candid" with different agencies.

Mr Rudakubana said he believed that different agencies "knew enough" to intervene.

"You should have allowed social workers to continue and get involved at that higher level because things had reached that pitch, on your evidence?" said Mr Moss.

Mr Rudakubana replied: "I have not stopped social workers, in fact it's me who called them in the house. Each time they came, it's me who had called them."

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss moved on to ask about early 2024.

He read from Alphonse Rudakubana's statement, which told how his son's "attitude and behaviour at home can be very frightening".

Around this time, his father remembered how his son had "poured a significant quantity of oil" over his head and threatened to kill him "in very menacing terms".

Mr Moss asked what he meant by menacing terms.

Mr Rudakubana said his son had appeared to be in some kind of "mental pain" before he poured a bottle of cooking oil over him.

He said: "He came in front of me he was poking me in my chest, saying if you get me out of here, in this house, it may take a week, it may be a month, maybe years, but trust me I will kill you."

He said the reference to leaving the house was from a comment around a week earlier when he had suggested that in the future his son would have to live in a separate house.

Mr Moss reads from Mr Rudakubana's statement, which said he and his wife were "very scared" of his son.

The statement reads: "The combination of fear and the desire to avoid confrontation by not inquiring into his activities and accepting his punishments, undoubtedly prevented me from doing things that would be expected of a parent, such as to monitor his internet activity."

The statement said: "This had catastrophic consequences for which I am desperately sorry."

Mr Moss asked: "Is that right?"

Mr Rudakubana said it was.

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

The hearing has resumed, with Sir Adrian Fulford reminding Alphonse Rudakubana to try and respond only to the questions he is asked. He has drifted away from the topics put to him in moment.

Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquiry, begins by asking about an incident in May 2022 when Rudakubana flooded the bathroom of his home in response to being denied access to a laptop.

This resulted in the police being called.

Mr Moss reads a line from a police report of the incident which said: "His parents are struggling to cope with him, they are going to contact CAMHS and his GP."

He asked: "Why did you not do so in relation to May?"

Mr Rudakubana said: "Previously when they attended they said they were going to contact the council and school, so I was thinking they were going to tell them."

Tom Mullen
BBC News

That concludes the first part of today's hearing and the inquiry will now break for lunch.

We're expecting things to get going again at about 14:15 so join us then for more updates.

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss has suggested to Mr Rudakubana that he did not report all the violent incidents to CAMHS.

He said: "When I told the police I expected all of the agencies and professionals to know at some point. I didn't have to inform them separately."

He said that he did not want to "list" every bad thing his son had done.

"I knew my son was autistic, I knew this by then. That made me being forgiving to him, more understanding and letting it happen because he would always calm down and have a normal life."

Mr Moss reads from his statement saying that he had become "conditioned" to being assaulted by his son, who would react violently to any "attempt to impose discipline".

He reads: "I am ashamed that this was my response and I felt demeaned, but I did not know what else to do."

Mr Rudakubana is asked if he was afraid his son would be taken away.

His answers have often veered away from the question asked, and he begins to discuss his son's autism once more.

This time, Sir Adrian Fulford, the inquiry chairman, intervenes and asks him to focus on the following question.

"Were you concerned that [your son] was going to be taken away from you?"

"Yes," Mr Rudakubana said.

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss asked why Mr Rudakubana called the police on 30 November 2021, when his son damaged a rental car.

Mr Rudakubana said because the "car was not mine".

He continued: "I felt pretty sad because it came from no big deal, just the food I cooked. I had spent like two hours hunting the ingredients and I cooked this food and he didn't like it and he insulted it."

Mr Moss highlighted a line in his statement where Mr Rudakubana questioned why agencies did not appreciate how bad or serious the situation was.

He suggests Mr Rudakubana had not been sharing the full details of the incidents over that months and asked why.

Mr Rudakubana said he called the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for one incident and nothing happened.

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss said in November 2021 there were four incidents of "specific violence".

The police were called on 5 November, when Rudakubana became angry that "someone could see him through the door when he was asleep".

In his statement, his father said his wife had called the police but he "probably would not have".

Mr Moss asked why he would be more reluctant to call the police.

Mr Rudakubana said it seemed to him at the time that his son's frustrations and violence were directed towards him and not others.

"Because it was being done on me, I couldn't appreciate how it was affecting others," he said.

"I was actually quite hurt last night when I saw what Dion said about his experiences at home."

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss has been asking about the killer "holding grudges".

He suggests that his December 2019 attack on a Range High School pupil with a hockey stick, two months after he was expelled, was a stark example.

Mr Rudakubana has tried to suggest there was "always a trigger" for his son's anger.

Mr Moss said: "He went back and tried to find the boy he perceived who bullied him. That is very clearly indicating that your son held a dangerous grudge. Can you accept that?"

Mr Rudakubana said: "That was one incident. It can be called a grudge but I will explain later what happened."

Mr Rudakubana confirmed that by January 2021 he believed his son "actively hated me."

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss said in his statement Alphonse Rudakubana said his son's behaviour deteriorated over a very short period between Year 8 and the start of Year 9.

He asked about Rudakubana's outbursts, as described by his brother Dion, and how often they happened.

Mr Rudakubana answered: "It was random. I don't remember exactly how many times. It depend on who is talking to him and what you say. For example if they are talking about subjects and they don't agree and they both have strong opinions he would get angry and get the outburst.

"It could be twice a day, it could be several, it is difficult to remember because it is a long time ago but it was much more than when he was in mainstream education."

He said the problems we "couldn't see before" were coming to the surface. He would bring up things from the past and accuse his father of striking him.

"Fighting and everything else, and these outbursts, they were not there. Everything started when he came home, when he lost his education."

He said his son "remembering things from the past" or being disagreed with could trigger outbursts.

Tom Mullen
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Here are some of the key moments of evidence we've heard in today's sitting, as both the killer's brother Dion Rudakubana and father Alphonse speak.

• Dion Rudakubana said he had considered his brother's motive may have been: "Because children are very valuable and they are the future of society and it would hurt society very badly. But this is only thoughts I have had in retrospect."
• He told how an empty knife package was found after the killer left home on the day of the attack
• Father Alphonse had warned his son "your brother is dangerous" and there were concerns about "provoking" him
• Alphonse Rudakubana told how his family were "kind of lonely" after he moved to the UK following the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s
• The killer's father said his son became more withdrawn and would spend long hours playing the Fortnite video game
• He said his son was not coping with "problems" in his life and was being unfairly targeted by repeated detentions in school

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss suggested that Mr Rudakubana began "taking teachers to task" from relatively early after the detentions were affecting his son's health and his life.

He said: "As a parent I had a duty of care to make sure that my son is coping."

Mr Moss said: "Can you see there was a mismatch between what [your son] was reporting to you as being the problems at school and the reality as perceived by the teachers?"

He said he would discuss and challenge his son about incidents at school but he also believed he had been unfairly treated.

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss asked about Alphonse Rudakubana requesting a special educational needs assessment in 2018/19.

He said he had also raised the issue in primary school and contacted a GP but did not get a response and had "forgotten" about it.

Mr Moss referred to an email Mr Rudakubana wrote to a safeguarding lead at Range High School in 2019, complaining that his son was getting "more detentions" than other children who behaved "similarly" and that Rudakubana "felt unfairly targeted."

The teacher replied: "This is [his] perception, not that of the teachers."

Mr Moss said: "What starts to be evident is you were quite questioning of the professionals at [your son's] school and you perceived teachers were picking on him?"

Mr Rudakubana said: "He was struggling with detentions and they were piling up because each teacher was giving him detention, in lunchtime, they didn't know the other had given him in the previous class.

"He was not managing the problems, he was in distress. At that time he was listening to me and he was vulnerable so at that point I had to intervene."

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss went on to ask about the Rudakubana children moving from primary to high school.

Mr Rudakuabana said Dion had to go to Range High School in Formby due to his disabilty, rather than Christ the King High School, which is where most of their peers went.

They made a decision as a family to send Axel to the same school rather than moving to Christ the King with his friendship group, "which in hindsight was a mistake".

However, he said initially he did well in Year Seven at Range High School.

He confirmed he agreed with the school's evidence that the first "signs of deterioration" came in Year 8, or the 2018/19 academic year.

Mr Rudakubana confirmed his younger son had become more withdrawn, did not talk about school life and was spending a lot of time playing the videogame Fortnite.

He said: "He was challenging in that he was always pushing the envelope or the boundaries that we had set. I had this parental control, but even the game Fortnite meant that I had to change the parental controls."

He said his son would "relentlessly" complain that all his friends were able to play it and he was feeling lonely.

He said he was unsure if he was playing more violent games aimed at older users.

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Moss said that it is known that the killer was interested in African history, and asked when he was told about the Rwandan genocide.

Mr Rudakubana said: "We made a decision to wait until they grow up and understand and be less affected. I was surprised - they came home and were talking about the genocide in Rwanda both of them, they were learning about it in school.

"We then told them a few things we thought they can handle."

He said he did not believe this discussion affected his family life in the UK.

"I think what affected them was that we were a small family with two friends from Rwanda [in the UK].

"They could see that we are kind of lonely compared to their peers, their friends from school. So they'll see that we are in a foreign land even thought they were born here."

He confirmed they moved to Southport in 2012 when his wife secured a job there.

From 2013, his wife began working shifts and he took on a role of doing the school runs.

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

Mr Rudakubana confirmed he has corrected several things in his statement that he told the police in the aftermath of the attack.

He said: "There was some mistake, probably from the pressure or the fact my voice was not coming out properly, but the intention was that what I was saying was true."

He confirmed he was born in Rwanda in 1975 and lived through the genocide in 1994.

Many of his family and friends were killed including his parents and three sisters.

He was taken by armed groups and threatened on a number of occasions, he confirmed.

Mr Rudakubana came to the UK in 2002 and was granted asylum in 2003.

He said his son Dion was born in 2004 and Axel Rudakubana was born in August 2006.

Jonny Humphries
BBC News

The inquiry has resumed and Alphonse Rudakubana, father of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana, will be giving evidence from a secret location with his face not visible to the public.

Nicholas Moss KC, lead counsel to the inquiry, asked for him to take the oath.

Mr Rudakubana, who is softly spoken and has a Rwandan accent, swears on the Bible.

He is asked to confirm that a document in front of him is his witness statement to the inquiry.