A senior police officer has warned that there are many young men viewing similar material to the Southport attacker and said he fears there could be another attack.
Alice Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Stancombe, seven, were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29 last year by Rudakubana, then aged 17.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Winstanley of Lancashire police told the inquiry into the killings: ‘Sadly, there are other children out there with similar interests and behaviours that Axel Rudakubana displayed.’
The officer said there was a ‘real challenge in managing children’s mental health’ and children’s mental health services, were ‘working extremely hard, doing their best, but are overburdened’.
He warned of a group of children who have ‘got what appears to be completely unregulated access to the internet, where at the click of a button, they can see the most horrific and horrendous incidents’.
‘They can go online and purchase things, which, frankly, I see no legitimate purpose for – crossbows and machetes,’ the officer added.
‘Barely a day goes by where we look at our morning summaries and there hasn’t been an incident the day before where somebody has either been attacked or threatened with a machete.
‘There is no other purpose for these weapons, other than to intimidate, enforce violence or deliver violence on people.’
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were all murdered in the atrocity on July 29, 2024
Axel Rudakubana, 18, was jailed for 52 years for the murders of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, at Liverpool Crown Court in January
Chairman Sir Adrian Fulford is overseeing the inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall
The officer told the inquiry: ‘It is far too easy for our young people, particularly those who are suffering with their mental health, to be influenced and to see this material, and to then get access to weapons that allow them to carry out, on occasion, atrocities, the like of which I hope we never see again, but I fear that we will.
‘I accept completely that Lancashire constabulary and policing has a significant role in this and we need to improve but these are things that as a society, there needs to be systemic change around if we’re going to make a difference.’
The inquiry has heard that two years before the Southport attacks, on March 17 2022 Rudakubana was reported missing from home by his mother who told police that he was severely autistic and had taken a knife from the kitchen.
They found him after a bus driver called police because he had got on a bus and refused to pay. When the officers spoke to him he admitted that he was carrying a small kitchen knife, the inquiry heard.
However, Rudakubana was treated as a vulnerable person, taken home by police and a referral for social services and mental health support under a process called ‘protecting vulnerable persons’ (PVP).
A probationary officer at the time recorded that on the way back to his home in the police car, Rudakubana told the officers ‘I want to stab someone’ but said he did not have access to information about concerns that Rudakubana was viewing material about high school massacres.
A knife identical to the one used in the attack at The Hart Space dance studio, on July 29 last year
One of the machetes that was found at Rudakubana’s home address by police
Nicholas Moss KC, for the inquiry, said: ‘The fact that officers on the ground didn’t have that full picture, but it would have led to an arrest and search if they had had that full picture, must mean that this was a very serious missed opportunity to identify and address the risks posed by Axel Rudakubana.’
Winstanley agreed but added that at the time they considered custody as ‘being a place of last resort for children.’
On March 14 2023, Presfield School, a specialist school that dealt with autism, called to request a welfare check, saying they had not seen him for ten months.
The police refused to attend under a process called ‘right care right person’ saying it was not an emergency and child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) were better positioned to deal with the case.
Mr Moss said there was ‘significant non-attendance’ of Rudakuana at school and they could not get to see him, CAMHS had difficulty engaging and he was not always keen to see the mental health services.
‘It’s not really proper multi-agency working at all, is it?’ he said.
The inquiry continues.
