Yvette Cooper said the public inquiry into the Southport murders at a Taylor-Swift themed dance class will probe failings that allowed Axel Rudakubana to commit ‘horrendous attack’
Yvette Cooper has today launched a public inquiry into the Southport murders of three young girls at a Taylor-Swift themed dance class.
The Home Secretary, who described the killings as a “unimaginable tragedy”, said the inquiry will examine failings that allowed evil Axel Rudakubana to commit the horrendous attack. Rudakubana was jailed for at least 52 years in January for the killing of Elsie Stancombe, 7, Bebe King, 6, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, in the summer of 2024.
The teenager was reported to the Prevent counter-terror programme three times, and a report found he should have been treated as a serious threat long before the frenzied attack. Retired judge Sir Adrian Fulford has been appointed as inquiry chairman following consultation with the victims and families of those killed.
Ms Cooper said: “The brutal murder of three young girls: Bebe, Elsie and Alice in Southport was an unimaginable tragedy – we owe it to their families, and all those affected on that terrible day to quickly understand what went wrong, answer difficult questions and do everything in our power to prevent something like this from happening again.
“The Southport Inquiry will provide insights into any failings that allowed a young man with a previous history of violence, to commit this horrendous attack. Sir Adrian Fulford will bring a wealth of legal and criminal justice expertise to this role, and I am pleased he has agreed to chair the Inquiry.”
PM Keir Starmer has pledged to leave “no stone uncovered” to find out how the tragedy happened. The first phase will have a focus on issues around policing, the criminal justice system and the multiple agencies involved with Rudakubana, following the revelation he had been referred to the Government’s Prevent scheme on three occasions but the cases were closed. The second phase will examine the wider issue of young people being drawn into extreme violence.
It came after the PM warned of a new threat from “extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms” following the Southport murders. The Home Office said the inquiry will be statutory – meaning it has the powers to compel witnesses to give evidence.
A learning review published in Februrary accused officers of a “lack of professional curiosity” and warned that a mis-spelling of Rudakubana’s name on the Prevent database meant he could have slipped through the net. The grim document showed he was fascinated by the Manchester Arena bombing, which claimed 22 innocent lives, searched school shootings on a school computer and talked about stabbing people.
It said Rudakubana posed a “sufficient risk” after he was referred to the counter-terrorism three times by worried school staff. But the review said some of his behaviour was dismissed as being linked to autism and concluded that a lack of a clear ideology meant he was not sent to the Channel programme to divert him from extremism.
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