Southport killer’s referral to counter-terror scheme closed too early, review finds

The Prevent counter-terrorism scheme "prematurely" closed its case on Axel Rudakubana three years before he went on to murder three children in Southport, a government review has found.

Security minister Dan Jarvis MP told the House of Commons Rudakubana had already discussed the Manchester Arena bombing and stabbing people when Prevent decided to end its involvement with him.

The killer, who is now serving 52 years in prison, was referred to Prevent three times between December 2019 and April 2021 due to his interest in terrorist attacks and school shootings, but there was no evidence of a fixed ideology or motivation.

Rudakubana was 17 when he stabbed 11 children and two adults, killing nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and six-year-old Bebe King.

The learning review found counter terrorism officers staffing the Prevent scheme had "sufficient information" to escalate his case to the next stage - known as Channel - which would have included enhanced monitoring.

Mr Jarvis said: "The review concluded that too much focus was placed on the absence of a distinct ideology, to the detriment of considering the perpetrator's susceptibility, grievances and complex needs."

Mr Jarvis added the "importance of the families needing answers" meant that the Home Office was taking the "unusual step" of publishing its findings, which he said are normally technical documents circulated internally.

Southport MP Patrick Hurley told the chamber "it beggared belief" that Rudakubana's name was spelled incorrectly on the Prevent database, which, the report found, had the potential to mean previous referrals would not show up in searches.

The review said while officers at Prevent had shown a "high level of compliance" with policies in place at the time, it criticised the focus on Rudakubana's ideology.

While there was no evidence of political or religious motivation, Rudakubana was obsessed with violence and his case should have been escalated as an example of what was then referred to as "mixed unclear and unstable ideology".

His first referral to Prevent in December 2019, when he was 13, was made by The Acorns special school where he was a pupil after being expelled from Range High School in Formby for carrying a knife.

In its analysis of that referral, the report stated: "He was conducting searches using the school's internet on school shootings in America, was talking about drawing guns and searching on the internet for guns in another lesson, was also overheard talking to a pupil about watching videos of people hurting themselves and made a graphic comment about a drill bit breaking and killing someone.

"It is not known if this special interest in school shooting, violence and injury amounted to a fascination as this interest may not have been fully explored and understood."

Rudakubana was referred to Prevent a second time in February 2021 when staff at Range High School contacted Acorns to say a pupil had reported social media posts by the teenager about Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The referral was dealt with "swiftly", with the officer writing that the posts did "not suggest he holds any extremist ideology".

However the review stated: "This referral was closed without the level of professional curiosity expected bearing in mind this was a second referral.

"There were no policies in place or guidance regarding repeat or multiple referrals at the time although it was widely considered to be a potential increase in risk."

It noted that the repeat referral issue was being "discussed as far back as 2014".

It also noted that a supervisor, checking the decision to close the second referral, had been unable to find the first referral on the system due to a spelling error in Rudakubana's name - which had been entered on the database as 'Rudukubana'.