Rowan Bridge
Reporting from the inquiry

The inquiry today also heard of AR’s attempts to purchase weapons in the run up to what happened. Police searches later found he had bought machetes, a sledgehammer and a bow and arrow. He also made inquiries about buying a crossbow.

Officers also found a pulp-like material under his bed which we know from court documents tested positive for the toxin ricin. The inquiry heard with the correct refinement, if inhaled it had to potential to kill more than 12,500 people.

Earlier the inquiry heard how its believed the perpetrator had seen details of the event advertised on Instagram and would have known it was being run by women for young children.

We also heard how he had searched online for the stabbing of a bishop in Australia shortly before he left home to carry out the attack.

But the inquiry has also heard about the actions of ordinary members of the public. Of how Leanne Lucas, who was running the event ushered children out despite being stabbed multiple times.

It heard of the members of the public who rushed to assist children and emergency services in the immediate aftermath.

The day of the attack was, DCI Pye said, “an example of bad meets good”.

We are bringing our coverage to a close now. We'll be back to cover the rest of DCI Pye's evidence tomorrow morning.

Rowan Bridge
Reporting from the inquiry

Today we’ve heard more evidence around exactly what unfolded on the day of the Southport attack.

The inquiry heard how the first police staff on the scene went in to tackle AR before armed response officers arrived. Three of them, including a police support officer tackled him to the ground.

DCI Jason Pye, who led Merseyside Police’s investigation, described the aftermath of the attack as not being a “textbook situation”.

The way events played out meant some parents of children at the event made it on to the landing of the building where the attack took place, seeing what was described as “the awfully distressing scene’” in its aftermath.

We will be continuing our live coverage of the inquiry tomorrow as DCI Jason Pye continues to give evidence.

Chief inspector Andrew Hughes of Merseyside Police and Daniel Ainsworth from the Northwest Ambulance Service NHS Trust will be giving their evidence on Wednesday with a summary of evidence from Professor Lyon being read.

Taxi driver Gary Poland, who drove AR to the dance studio, is listed to speak to the inquiry on Thursday. Liam Rice, general manager of One Call Taxis and Mark Toohey, principal trading standards officer for Sefton Council are also due to give evidence.

With the inquiry finished for the day, here's a look back at some of the key exchanges between Nicholas Moss KC and DCI Jason Pye of Merseyside Police.

As we reported earlier, the purpose of the evidence today has been to provide the inquiry with a “definitive account” of the day of the Southport attack.

Here's what the inquiry heard today:

• AR - as the inquiry is referring to the perpetrator- saved the address of the dance studio as a contact on his phone
• DCI Jason Pye, who led the investigation into the attack, described how the knife used may have been hidden in the killer's hoodie
• With no CCTV in the building, Pye - who was the only person to speak today - said it was not possible to “determine with any precision” the way the attack unfolded inside, but confirmed it “started very suddenly” and was “wholly unexpected”

• The taxi driver who drove AR to the dance studio saw and heard children running from the building and screaming as he drove away, but waited 50 minutes before calling 999 – the delay made no difference to the time police arrived due to other emergency calls being made
• Moss asked if comments made by AR after his arrest were the "diametric opposite of showing any kind of remorse whatsoever", to which DCI Pye agreed
• DCI Pye told the inquiry officers found a pulp like substance in a box under AR’s bed which tested positive for the biological toxin ricin
• AR also bought archery equipment, machetes and a jerry can as well as smoke grenades online, some of which he used other people’s driving licences to purchase

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

Moss now moves on to the purchase of a third machete made in October 2023, from a company called Hunting and Knives.

Pye says AR had also been exchanging emails with this company asking about age checks and whether packaging was discreet. He also used someone else’s driving license to make this order – this time one belonging to a man named Samuel.

As a photograph of the third machete is shown, Moss says: “This machete does seem to have got into AR’s hands, because this is the machete that was found together with the bow and arrows in the black hold-all by the bunk bed in the bedroom.”

He says the company that delivered the machete to his home did not ask for verification, and that this would be explored in further detail later in the inquiry.

At this point, the hearing adjourns for the day.

Stay with us and we’ll recap all the key lines from the day for you.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

Moss says that in October 2023, AR ordered a second machete from a company called Knife Warehouse.

This was only found after AR was sentenced in January for a minimum of 52 years.

He says this happened because the contents of AR’s house had been cleared due to the risk posed by the ricin and were analysed in storage.

The detective confirms that when this machete was found, it was still in its original grey packaging and had not been opened.

A photograph of the machete is displayed in the inquiry room.

On the box is a red sticker warning the contents are “extremely sharp” and an outer label warning describes it as an age restricted item.

DCI Pye agrees that it seemed possible that because the machete was unopened, it may also have been intercepted by his family.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

Nicholas Moss KC says that despite UK law banning the sale of machetes to under 18s, AR - as the perpetrator is being referred to during the inquiry - was able to have “no less than three” delivered to his home address.

On June 10 2023, AR ordered a machete from a company called Springfields, purchasing a 22in Bushcraft survival knife, and used the name of a real woman named Alice when placing the order.

DCI Pye says it appears AR had managed to get a copy of the woman's driving licence somehow and illicitly used it to bypass online age checks.

Moss says it appears that when the machete was delivered, to the name of Alice, a delivery driver was met at the door by AR’s father.

A photograph of the package is shown, which has a very prominent red sticker confirming it contained a bladed article, stating “delivery to 18 plus only”.

DCI Pye says AR’s father confirmed to police he had taken delivery of it and hidden it on top of a wardrobe.

Moss says AR had also ordered a sledgehammer which was delivered and recovered from the house.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

Nicholas Moss KC now turns to emails AR sent to two companies - Tactical Archery and Merlin Archery - in May 2022, asking if they checked age on delivery as parts of failed attempts to buy a crossbow.

In those emails he asked if they checked age on delivery and if they would be sent in “discreet packaging.”

Neither company sold AR a crossbow and there wasn’t one found at his address, Moss says.

The inquiry is also told AR ordered smoke grenades in January 2023 from a company called Inevitable UK. This order was made via Amazon.

DCI Pye says these were found at the bottom of an airing cupboard in AR’s bedroom after the attack.

The inquiry will now take a break for a few minutes.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

Moss now describes AR buying a bow and arrow set as well as machetes online, saying that some of the archery equipment did not need to be legally age verified.

He then asks for a picture of a container of black arrows to be displayed on the screen in Liverpool Town Hall.

"Those are not toys?", Moss asks, to which Pye agrees.

Moss goes on to say that on 22 July 2024 AR was asking his father to buy petrol for him, having recently ordered a jerry can online. He then confirms the teenager did not often go outside and had no driving licence.

There is “no innocent reason on the face of things to want a jerrycan?” Moss suggests.

“No,” DCI Pye replies.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

Moving on to what AR – as the attacker is being referred to in the inquiry - was doing online before the attacks and what was found at his home, DCI Pye confirms records show he had bought a set of scales and 150 castor seeds online in January 2022.

The packages were addressed to AR’s father and to the house next door to the family home.

AR also bought pure alcohol using his own payment card, as well as filter paper, storage containers, safety goggles and a conical flask.

DCI Pye recalls how police teams searching the address after the attack found a pulp like substance in a box under the killer's bed, which complicated the search.

The product, as we know from court proceedings, tested positive for the biological toxin ricin.

Nicholas Moss KC says the quantity was enough to kill between 2,547 and 12,690 people by inhalation, although further refinement would have been needed.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

Moss now refers to comments made by AR in custody after his arrest.

These have previously been reported in court proceedings.

Moss says he will not "dignify" the attacker by reading them out.

He asked DCI Pye: "Would you agree the statements he made were the diametric opposite of showing any kind of remorse whatsoever?"

The detective replies: "Completely."

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from the Liverpool

Nicholas Moss KC now turns to the actions of members of the public at the scene.

DCI Pye says he would like to “formally recognise” the efforts of those people and is asked by Moss if he wants to say anything further.

“I think this was definitely an example of bad meeting good,” Pye says.

“People may have seen on TV how chaotic the scene was outside, but there was lots of good people and it’s only right that we recognise the work that those people did,” he adds.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from the inquiry

The three officers were then joined by two colleagues, PC Shakespeare and PC Carr, who assisted in restraining AR.

Sgt Gillespie and PC Holden went into the studio and found Elsie Dot Stancombe, who was beyond medical help by this time.

DCI Pye says that in a “textbook scenario” someone would have remained at the door to prevent other people from coming upstairs.

However, “this was far from textbook,” he continues.

He says Sgt Gillespie had to “take some control” of the scene and prevent parents from entering the building.

“Yes, it was quite a difficult time”, Pye says.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from the inquiry

Nicholas Moss KC begins the afternoon by asking DCI Jason Pye to talk through what happened after Sgt Greg Gillespie, PC Luke Holden and PCSO Tim Parry arrived at a flight of steps leading up to the dance studio.

Pye says they did not wait for firearms officers before heading up the stairs to confront the perpetrator, AR, as he’s being referred to in the inquiry.

They saw AR, with a knife clearly visible, and shouted at him to drop it, which he did when Sgt Gillespie and PC Holden approached him.

PCSO Parry then ran up to assist after hearing the word “knife”.

Sgt Gillespie then struck AR with the baton "with force" which knocked him to the ground, with PCSO Parry lying on his legs and PC Holden applying the handcuffs.

DCI Pye says the attacker was “verbally remonstrating” with the officers as he was restrained.

As the killer was detained, Sgt Gillespie asked window cleaner Joel Verite to take Bebe King, who was lying nearby, downstairs to see if anything could be done for her.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

The inquiry is back under way after a lunch break.

Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquiry, will resume by continuing to question witness DCI Jason Pye, who led the investigation for Merseyside Police.

Stay with us and we’ll bring you all the key lines.

Erica Witherington
Reporting from the inquiry

The purpose of the evidence so far today has been to provide the inquiry with a “definitive account” of the day of the Southport attack.

DCI Jason Pye is the senior detective who oversaw the entire police investigation. In calling him - and not the various eye-witnesses - the inquiry is seeking to pin down exactly what happened and when, without having to cause further trauma to those who were there on the day.

Counsel to the inquiry, Nicholas Moss KC, has been taking DCI Pye methodically through the sequence of events, often to the very second.

Which victims exited the Hart Space and when? In what order? When was the first 999 call made? He has been taking care not to recount distressing details - apologising to people listening here when he’s unable to avoid doing so.

The graphic CCTV that was seen in court is intentionally not being shown at this inquiry, so the detective’s account is painting that picture in a factual, but deliberately less vivid way.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

The first police officer arrived at the scene was confronted by the sight of a child on the ground being treated, as well as Verite and screaming parents flagging him down.

DCI Jason Pye says Sgt Gillespie told the parents an ambulance was close behind and was led by Verite to the door to the building.

Verite told Sgt Gillespie the attacker had a knife, before saying Gillespie would “need a gun” as he suggested the baton would be ineffective in the situation.

Two other officers, PCSO Tim Parry and PC Luke Holden, who had a taser, arrived seconds later.

Nicholas Moss KC tells the inquiry Gillespie and Holden told Parry to wait at the door due to his less intensive training as a police community support officer, and “with very little delay” they then entered the dance studio.

Inquiry chair Sir Adrian Fulford then calls a break for lunch, with this evidence being heard this afternoon.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

The inquiry hears that some of the children got into a white BMW outside the dance studio, which had the mother of Child Q, as well as her aunt and brother inside.

Alice then collapsed near the rear of the car.

Joel Verite, the window cleaner who was nearby, picked her up and carried her from the car park to Hart Street where others tried to help her until paramedics arrived.

The inquiry has previously heard Alice's injuries were considered unsurvivable by medical experts.

Nicholas Moss KC says Verite removed his t-shirt so it could be used to stem the bleeding, before running back to the studio area.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

The inquiry then hears the delay in calling 999 made no difference to the timing of the police arriving at the scene, due to the call Leanne Lucas made as she exited the building.

Moss says taxi driver Gary Poland: “Wasn’t to know” anyone else had called, which Det Ch Insp Pye agrees with.

The detective is then asked whether he would have expected a “member of the public acting responsibly” to have called 999 immediately.

DCI Jason Pye says he agrees that Poland had no legal “duty of care”.

He adds: “I would like to think morally a call would have been made…there was enough evidence we had that he knew what was happening, yes you would expect a phone call to be made.”

Nicholas Moss KC then points out that a number of others had made 999 calls.

Jonny Humphries
Reporting from Liverpool

Moss then moves onto the actions of taxi driver Gary Poland.

Pye confirms to the inquiry that Poland saw and heard children running from the building screaming as he drove away – this was confirmed by dashboard camera evidence.

Moss says Child C3 had to change direction to avoid the taxi, also confirmed that Poland “looked in the rearview mirror.”

Gary Poland did not call police until 12:26 BST, around 50 minutes later, the inquiry hears.

A transcript of that call, read by Nichoals Moss KC, says: “The lad that done everything [AR]. I picked him up…I’m just a bit shook up. My heart is going like I don’t know what.”

Poland then described AR, and where he picked him up from.

He told the 999 operator he had seen young children “just screaming”.

“That’s when I shot off then,” he added, referring to him leaving the scene.