A convicted American neo-Nazi was permitted to leave the UK by police despite being known for ‘grooming and radicalising’ Britain’s youngest ever girl to be charged with terror offences.
Dax Mallaburn was questioned by counter-terrorism officers at Heathrow Airport having been suspected of encouraging 16-year-old Rhianan Rudd to look at violent material online.
Despite such suspicions, the decision was still taken to allow Mallaburn to leave the UK without any further action, the Daily Telegraph has reported.
He boarded a flight to the US, where he then travelled on to Mexico, in October 2020.
Having been assessed as a ‘medium risk of radicalisation’ by experts, Rudd was nonetheless later charged by the CPS with six counts of terrorism in April 2021, the youngest individual in British history to ever receive such charges.
However, in December 2022, the charges against the vulnerable and autistic schoolgirl were dropped with the Home Office ruling that she had been a victim of grooming.
Rudd downloaded guides on how to make a pipe bomb, homemade weapons and guerilla warfare and also scratched a swastika into her forehead.
Just five months later, on May 19 2022, she was found dead at a children’s home by her carer in Nottinghamshire.
Dax Mallaburn (pictured) was questioned by counter-terrorism officers at Heathrow Airport having been suspected of encouraging 16-year-old Rhianan Rudd to look at violent material online. Yet police still allowed him to leave the UK without any further action, the Daily Telegraph has reported
Having been assessed as a ‘medium risk of radicalisation’ by experts, Rudd (pictured) was nonetheless later charged by the CPS with six counts of terrorism in April 2021, the youngest individual in British history to receive such charges
In December 2022, the charges against the vulnerable and autistic schoolgirl were dropped with Home Office ruling that she had been a victim of grooming. Just five months later, on May 19 2022, she was found dead at a children’s home by her carer in Nottinghamshire
During an inquest into the circumstances surrounding Rudd’s death, Chesterfield Coroners Court heard that she had began to show signs of far-Right radicalisation after Mallaburn moved into the family home in Bolsover, Derbyshire, with her mother, Emily Carter, in 2017.
Mallaburn, who met Ms Carter through an inmate pen-pal scheme, had previously been found by a US Supreme Court ruling to be a member of a neo-Nazi group and had also served prison time in the US for possession of weapons.
In 2019, Rudd, then aged 14, complained to Derbyshire County Council social workers, who themselves had suspicions that she was being groomed, that Mallaburn had touched her sexually.
However, when police later visited Rudd at her home address, she retracted the allegations.
Just days before she took her own life, the teen told a counter-terrorism official that Mallaburn, who she described as a ‘literal Nazi’ was explaining to her what ‘really happened’ during the Second World War.
Mallaburn also introduced the impressionable teenager to fellow US white supremacist Chris Cook, who provided her with clear instructions on how to make homemade bombs and weapons.
In September 2020, Ms Carter reported her concerns about her daughter to anti-radicalisation programme Prevent.
The inquest heard that she had been unaware of Mallaburn’s influence on her young teenager.
During an inquest into the circumstances surrounding Rhianan’s death, Chesterfield Coroners Court heard that Rudd had began to show signs of far-Right radicalisation after Mallaburn moved into the family home in Bolsover, Derbyshire, with her mother, Emily Carter, in 2017
In a letter addressed to counter-terrorism police, Ms Carter (pictured right) said that Rudd had developed an ‘unhealthy outlook on fascism’ and harboured a ‘massive dislike for certain races and creeds’. The inquest heard that she was unaware of Mallaburn’s influence on her daughter
In a letter addressed to counter-terrorism police, Ms Carter said that Rudd had developed an ‘unhealthy outlook on fascism’ and harboured a ‘massive dislike for certain races and creeds.’
When the youngster was visited by local police at her school, she confirmed her interest in the extreme right and told police she had met an American ‘neo-Nazi’ over the online gaming platform, Discord.
Classmates told school leaders that Rudd had revealed her intention to ‘kill someone in school or blow up a Jewish place of worship’, counsel to the inquest Edward Pleeth said.
‘She said she doesn’t care who she kills and nothing matters any more,’ a school log shown at the hearing stated.
Drawings found in her school bag included sketches of a man giving a Nazi salute.
A child protection team from Derbyshire County Council later found that both Mallaburn and Cook had encouraged the young teen to ‘look at violent material’.
‘Suspicions of radicalisation’ related to Rudd were then passed on by counter-terrorism police by MI5.
On October 21 2020, just two weeks after Mallaburn had been allowed to board his flight from Heathrow, Rhianan was arrested by East Midlands counter-terror police.
Mallaburn also introduced the impressionable teenager to fellow US white supremacist Chris Cook (pictured), who provided her with clear instructions on how to make homemade bombs and weapons
While the charges against Rudd were later dropped, her mother believed that the pressure of the investigation ultimately took its toll on her young daughter who she said should have been treated ‘as a victim rather than a terrorist’
Bailed as a terror suspect, she was removed from school and placed in a children’s home.
While the charges were later dropped, Rudd’s mother believed that the pressure of the investigation ultimately took its toll on her young daughter who she said should have been treated ‘as a victim rather than a terrorist’.
A close friend of the teen’s family, Ann, had begun an affair with Mallaburn by the time Rhianan had been arrested.
Having later relocated to Mexico to be with him, she told the Daily Telegraph that while he had been ‘interviewed by the FBI about Rhianan and her online relationship with a man in Ohio’, she firmly believed that he had ‘never been charged with any race crime’.
Whitehall sources told the publication that the Home Office had put ‘robust safeguards in place to ensure that those who intend to sow hatred and division can be refused entry to our country’.
Adding that it is a ‘police decision’ to decide whether an individual is unable to leave the country, they added: ‘They make the call on whether it is possible and appropriate to confiscate an individual’s passport to prevent their departure’.
East Midlands counter-terror police refused to comment ahead of the coroner’s findings.
