A public inquiry revealed the murders of three young girls in Southport ‘could and should have been prevented’, pointing to failings in council safeguarding and partner agencies.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were killed by Axel Rudakubana, 17, after he stabbed them in July 2024 during a Taylor Swift themed dance class.
In a report published on Monday (13th April), inquiry chairman Sir Adrian Fulford said there had been a ‘fundamental failure’ by any organisation, or multi-agency arrangement, to take ownership of the risk Rudakubana posed in the years leading up to the attack.
The findings raise significant concerns about cooperation between services including Lancashire County Council social care, Lancashire Constabulary and specialist health providers.
Within the report, which spans 763 pages and was delivered in Liverpool Town Hall, it states ‘essential information was repeatedly lost, diluted or poorly managed across agencies’. And, there was a ‘repeated tendency’ to ‘excuse’ the 17-year-olds behaviour, including violence, on the basis of his autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Chris Walker, from the law firm Bond Turner, which represents the families of the three girls, said he had written to the government’s anti-terror programme Prevent, council social services, police and mental health services to express ‘horror’ at their conduct.
‘We call for disciplinary proceedings to ensue against those individuals, who I know the names of,’ he said.
‘We want disciplinary proceedings against them to begin and finish swiftly and that includes people losing their jobs. If we are not satisfied with the outcome of those disciplinary proceedings from a managerial level to a lower, coalface, level, to use that expression, then I will be publicly naming those individuals as people we say are not fit to serve in a public office.’
Mr Walker said the families remain deeply affected. He added: ‘We’ve had so many apologies, we’ve had so many statements that lessons will be learned.
‘All of those statements, all those ‘lessons will be learned’, will never bring those children back, those families will have to live with that empty hole for the rest of their lives.’
The inquiry heard Rudakubana had been referred three times to Prevent, prompting criticism of the programme’s effectiveness. Mr Walker admitted: ‘I have no faith in Prevent as an organisation.’
He supported recommendations to consider a single agency or structure to oversee cases involving children deemed at high risk of inflicting harm.
The report also raises questions about parental accountability. The chairman said the attacker’s parents could have intervened if they had ‘done what they morally ought to have done’.
Rudakubana was having knives and other weapons delivered to his home in the days leading up to the attack – a factor his parents failed to report. Mr Walker said the teenager had ‘placed his mother and father in an extremely difficult position’, and their ‘life at home must have become little short of a nightmare given, to use the words of his own father, [he] had turned into a ‘monster’.
‘If the full extent of Axel Rudakubana’s family’s concerns had been shared with authorities in late July 2024 – including on the day of the attack – it is almost certain this tragedy would have been prevented,’ Mr Walker continued.
He added: ‘They should go to prison. They have blood on their hands. I’ve said that publicly, but I also acknowledge that the legal framework as it currently stands makes that very difficult, and so phase two of the report has to adopt a legal process of parental responsibility.
‘There is a moral obligation to protect society at large from a murderer whose intense is to cause mass murder. There has to be a legal obligation.’
The second phase of the Southport inquiry is due to be published in spring next year, but the latest inquiry can be read in full here.
Image: Tingey Injury Law Firm/UnSplash
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