The inquiry into the Southport dance class attack resumes
Staff from the school that referred killer Axel Rudakubana to the government's Prevent anti-extremism scheme three times are giving evidence
A range of concerns had been raised about him, including that he made antisemitic comments and referred to the 2017 London Bridge terror attack
The inquiry heard the killer had called Childline to say he was being bullied and had carried a knife into school 10 times
Childline then referred the matter to police
One of the killer's former head teachers told how she 'dreaded' what he might do
A PE teacher recalled how the perpetrator attacked a boy with a hockey stick and also took a knife into school
The inquiry's first phase is examining the perpetrator's history, his contact with relevant agencies and any missed opportunities to prevent the attack
Alice Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe were killed and 10 others were injured in the attack on 29 July 2024
Tom Mullen
BBC News
That concludes our live updates from today's evidence.
We'll continue to run live pages like this for key sections of evidence from the inquiry and, of course, our daily news stories will continue as usual too.
Many thanks for joining us.
Ewan Gawne
BBC News
Inquiry chairman Adrian Fulford asked why, in inter-agency documents about the killer, there was pressure put on Mrs Hodson to remove the word "sinister" and replace it with "inappropriate".
The teacher said she was told by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service to make the change.
She told the inquiry she was challenged by the service who told her "no child should ever be described as sinister and a professional you should not be using those words".
Quote Message"I was told my attitude towards risk was because I perceived him to be a black boy with a knife, they thought I was racially profiling him."
Ewan Gawne
BBC News
The inquiry is today focused on the killer's time at Range Hill School in Formby, which ended in Oct 2019 when he bought a knife into school, but he did not use it. He called Childline to say he did so due to bullying.
He was permanently expelled, before enrolling at Acorns School, an institution in Ormsirk for students who have been permanently expelled.
Two months later in December 2019, he went back to Range School and attacked a pupil with hockey stick.
After this, he was not allowed to return to Acorns, with staff insisting a risk assessment must first be held.
He eventually returned by July in summer term of 2020, after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
We're hearing a lot in evidence today about Prevent, the government programme which aims to intervene and stop people becoming radicalised.
You can read more about exactly what it is here.
Image source, PA MediaEwan Gawne
BBC News
After his searches for violent imagery, the teenager was banned by the school from accessing the internet on 4 December 2019.
The inquiry has been going over his search history and what information was shared about his searches between agencies.
Mrs Hodson said the school made a third referral to Prevent after the teenager immediately began searching for the London Bridge attack on the first day his internet ban was lifted.
She confirmed the school had strengthened its online protections with live monitoring software since.
Ewan Gawne
BBC News
The inquiry has been shown repeated website access attempts made by the killer in November 2019 while at he was at Acorns School.
Mr Moss said the evidence showed a "significant number" of efforts to find “really quite horrific images that you might see in a surgical textbook”.
This included searches for “skin degloved” via traditional news outlets and then trying other sites.
The searches came a month before he attacked a pupil with a hockey stick at his former school in December 2019.
Ms Hodson said the school had software in place to block content, but some of the teenager’s searches got through.
Ewan Gawne
BBC News
The inquiry has previously heard how nurse John Hicklin from Forensic Child and Mental Health Service (FCAMHS) offered a "£5 bet" on what would happen to the killer at a meeting of multi-agency professionals who were discussing his care on 21 January 2020.
Mrs Hodson, who was at the meeting, told the inquiry she had been explaining how risky he was but felt ignored.
She felt there were “many high-risk factors, and that he would come back to school and carry out something similar” to the December 2019 hockey stick attack.
Mrs Hodson said she feared he would target teachers and pupils whom he had previously accused of bullying him.
She said she felt FCAMHS would be “more forensic” and do a “proper professional risk assessment”, but instead said she felt “ganged up on” in that meeting and that the school had been left to deal with the problem on her own.
Ewan Gawne
BBC News
Mrs Hodson said she had sought extra resources to help manage the teenager and get him back into school.
But she told the inquiry she had applied for help from specialist teaching services to come and assist, but was unsuccessful.
Her repeated bids for help were eventually ignored by those she was in contact with at Lancashire County Council, she said.
“I had a chain of emails saying ‘we need him in’, but people just stopped answering me in the end.”
Ewan Gawne
BBC News
The hearing has resumed with evidence from Joanne Hodson, the head teacher of Acorns School in Ormskirk.
Bail conditions were placed on the teenager after he attacked another pupil with a hockey stick in December 2019 at his former school, the Range High School in Formby, meaning he could not attend Acorns until a multi-agency risk assessment was held, she told the inquiry.
Mrs Hodson said she had “very significant” concerns about the risk he would pose to other pupils and staff if he returned, and it was “not appropriate” for him to come back until a proper assessment.
But she said she felt resistance from other agencies to this position, and said: “I felt they all took a step back and passed the risk to us, their solution was ‘you’ve got to take him back’”
The headteacher said she was expected all the agencies to get together to assess the risk of his return, but “that didn’t happen”.
“The police peeled away, social services said they didn’t think there was a risk, and we were literally left holding the baby.”
Ewan Gawne
BBC News
Image source, PA MediaThe inquiry is about to resume shortly for the afternoon session, so here's a quick up-sum of where things are at:
Tom Mullen
BBC News
The hearing is now taking a break for lunch and we're expecting things to resume from about 13:40.
Ewan Gawne
BBC News
The inquiry is told by Mrs Hodson that the teenager’s father would endorse his son’s behaviour and “openly criticise” the school in front of his son, undermining teachers’ authority.
She said Alphonse Rudakubana said the school was wrong to make a third Prevent referral, and that they were treating his son like an “enemy of the state”.
The headteacher said the boy and his father felt there was a ”stigma” to the killer being at pupil referral unit specialist school rather than in mainstream education.
Lynette Horsburgh
BBC News
In response to a March 2020 email by the killer's parents which claimed the teenager was not a risk and should be allowed to return to mainstream school, Mrs Hodson said the teenager "would not have coped there".
She said it "highly undermined" the work of the school.
He had brought a knife into school 10 times and had shown no remore for a "pre-meditated attack" on another pupil with a hockey stick in December 2019.
Ewan Gawne
BBC News
Earlier, Mrs Hodson told the inquiry despite being “very concerned” about the risks the teen posed at school and his vulnerability to being radicalised, she never imagined he was “capable of carrying out such a vile and evil attack”.
She said the attack in Southport was “so far removed” from the risks she would have associated with him.
Her concerns were that the teenager would attack someone “in revenge” over perceived bullying, not strangers.
Ewan Gawne
BBC News
Mrs Hodson said she did not believe the teenager was being bullied by others, despite his perceptions to the contrary.
In one incident, he was told by another pupil "put your apron on" during a cookery class, and perceived this to be bullying, the head teacher said.
The claims of bullying were also echoed by his father, she added.
Nicholas Moss KC asked Mrs Hodson how confident was she that the killer was not being bulled.
She replied "I’m very confident. We are a very small setting. There were five pupils in his class at most, and two members of staff.
"So if anything had been said or there was any bullying going on we would hear it. We monitor interaction. They are supervised constantly.
"That was one of the things the he didn’t like about coming to our school and that Dad didn’t like about coming to our school is the level of monitoring, it is completely different from the mainstream."
Ewan Gawne
BBC News
Speaking about her first meeting with the killer, Mrs Hodson felt that he was very high risk and warned others.
She said she communicated to all staff "that he was a very high risk that he would have to be searched, that he had brought a knife in, that he didn’t show any remorse at it and that I thought he was on the spectrum”.
Over time he showed “a level of agitation”, including direct challenges to staff and claims other pupils were bullying him, which made Ms Hodson said made her fear that the teen was “building up to something”.
She said she felt a “visceral sense of dread” he would take a knife into school like he did at the Range.
Lynette Horsburgh
BBC News
Mrs Hodson said the teenager was "highly unusual" and "incredibly difficult to read" - something she felt had "sinister undertones".
"He had no respect for authority, for staff or pupils," she said, and did not have "any accountability or remorse".
She said his interactions were "challenging" with both staff and students and she tried to get help from other agencies.
Lynette Horsburgh
BBC News
Mrs Hodson explained that Acorns School is quite a small school, and deals with challenging pupils who for one reason or another can’t attend mainstream school.
That might be because they are permanently excluded, it might be because they are in a period of intervention with the intention of going back, or it might be because they have special educational needs.
Ewan Gawne
BBC News
Mrs Hodson has described a "memorable meeting" with the killer and his parents when he was being enrolled at Acorns.
She told the inquiry she asked the teen why he brought a knife into his previous school.
"He looked me in the eyes and said 'to use it'"
The headteacher said this is the only time this has happened in her career, and he showed "no remorse".
She told the inquiry she was also troubled to see his parents "didn't flinch" when he explained he planned to use the knife.
"They weren’t upset they weren’t talking to him, they weren’t remonstrating, they just accepted what he said."
Tom Mullen
BBC News
The next witness to give evidence will be Joanne Hodson, the headteacher of Acorns School in Ormskirk, where the killer attended.
Mrs Hodson has been in the position since 15 July 2022.
From 2016 she was special education needs coordinator along with being deputy head.
She was also the school's acting head teacher for periods in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.