'Wholesale failure' to address risks posed by Southport attacker before murders, says public inquiry chairman

There was a "wholesale and general failure" to address the risks posed by Axel Rudakubana before the Southport attack, the chairman of the public inquiry into the murders has said.

In his opening statement at Liverpool Town Hall, Sir Adrian Fulford said the teenager's "known predilection for knife crime" suggests it was "far from an unforeseeable catastrophic event".

The former vice president of the Court of Appeal said Rudakubana's actions "impose the heaviest of burdens" to investigate how it was possible for him to cause "such devastation".

The 18-year-old murdered Elsie Dot Stancomb, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, at a Taylor Swift-themed class on 29 July last year.

He also injured eight other children and two adults at the Hart Space in the Merseyside seaside town, with Sir Adrian describing the attack as "one of the most egregious crimes in our country's history".

The public inquiry, announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in January, will look into whether the attack could or should have been prevented, given what was known about the killer.

Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff, had been referred to the government's anti-extremism Prevent scheme three times before the murders, including over research into school shootings and the London Bridge terror attack.

He had also accessed online material about explosives, warfare, knives, assassination and an al Qaeda training manual.

A rapid review into his contact with Prevent found his case should have been kept open and that he should have been referred to Channel, another anti-terror scheme.

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Rudakubana was twice caught with a knife and managed to hoard other blades, as well as a bow and arrow, machetes, a sledgehammer and the deadly toxin ricin at his home.

He bought the 20cm chef's knife used to carry out the attack using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

Sir Adrian said he did not want to pre-judge the outcome of the inquiry.

But he added: "These factors, if correct and when taken together, tend to suggest that far from being an unforeseeable catastrophic event, the perpetrator posed a very serious and significant risk of violent harm, over a number of years, with a particular and known predilection for knife crime.

"Furthermore, his ability, unhindered, to access gravely violent material on the internet, to order knives online when underage, and then to leave home unsupervised to commit the present attack, speaks to a wholesale and general failure to intervene effectively, or indeed at all, to address the risks that he posed."

Sir Adrian said the inquiry will examine decisions taken in light of Rudakubana's "deteriorating and deeply troubling behaviour" to identify "without fear or favour" all of the relevant failings.

He said he aims to make recommendations to ensure the best chance of stopping others "who may be drawn to treating their fellow human beings in such a cruel and inhuman way".

Rudakubana, 18, was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January and is being investigated over an alleged attack on a prison officer at Belmarsh prison in May.

Sir Adrian said he would be referred to by his initials or as "the perpetrator" during the inquiry and asked the media not to show his "terrifying and singularly distressing" police mugshot to avoid causing distress to the survivors and their families, who have been granted anonymity.

The surviving children, many whom were under the age of 10, are "bravely trying to cope with school life in the face of what they have suffered," he added.

Sir Adrian asked those in the room to stand for a minute's silence for the victims.

Some of those whose children were injured will speak at a hearing on Wednesday before the inquiry is adjourned to 8 September, with the first phase expected to last until November.

It will then move on to a second phase next year to "consider the wider issues of children and young people being drawn into extreme violence".

Rachael Wong, director at law firm Bond Turner, representing the three bereaved families, said: "We know that nothing the inquiry reveals or subsequently recommends will change the unimaginable loss felt by the families of Elsie, Alice and Bebe, but we all now have a responsibility to ensure that something like this never happens again.

"We will be doing all we can to assist the chair through the inquiry and uncover the truth.

"It is only through intense public scrutiny that real change can be effected."

Sefton Council is asking people not to leave flowers near schools or the scene of the attack to mark the anniversary later this month, but to donate to local charitable causes instead.

There will be a three-minute silence and flags will be lowered to half-mast on public buildings around the Liverpool city region.

"We fully understand that many of us still need to grieve and to mark the day," the council said in an open letter.

"Our colleagues have been working with faith and community leaders to identify local spaces where you can go, within your neighbourhood, to pay tribute, whether this be to say a prayer, light a candle, speak to someone or quietly reflect in a way that feels right for you."

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