Lancashire Police responded to five calls from Axel Rudakubana’s home about his behaviour before the Southport attacks took place, Yvette Cooper has revealed, as she said multiple agencies failed to identify the “terrible danger” he posed.
Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, the home secretary offered more details on the child killer’s background and announced a new public inquiry into the murders he committed of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
She said the government will “consider the wider challenge of rising youth violence” and that requests will be made to tech companies to remove online material accessed by the 18-year-old.
The home secretary also said the government has ordered a “thorough review” of the Rudakubana’s referrals to the Prevent anti-terror programme “to identify what changes are needed to make sure serious cases are not missed”.
It comes after the prime minister said Britain faces a new threat of terrorism from “extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms”.
Giving a statement in London, Sir Keir Starmer said the law and framework for responding needed to be appropriate to the “new threat” and whatever changes were necessary in the law would be made.
Rudakubana pleaded guilty on Monday to the murders of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva, nine, in Southport last July.
He also admitted the attempted murders of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, dance class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
Outlining more details on Rudakubana’s background, Ms Cooper told the Commons that he had admitted to having carried a knife more than 10 times, was referred three times to Prevent and had contact with both children’s social care and mental health services.
He was also convicted of a violent assault against another child at school, as well as having been excluded from one school.
“Yet the action against him was far too weak”, she said. “And despite the fact he’d been convicted for violence and was just 17, he was easily able to order a knife on Amazon.
“That’s a total disgrace and it must change. So, we will bring in stronger measures to tackle knife sales online in the Crime and Policing Bill this spring.”
“It is just unbearable to think that something more could and should have been done", Ms Cooper said.
“There are grave questions about how this network of agencies failed to identify and act on the risks. There were so many signs of how dangerous he had become, yet the action against him was far too weak.
“So families need the truth about why the system failed to tackle his violence for so many years. That is why we are setting up an independent public inquiry.”
During her statement, the homes secretary also put tech firms on notice, demanding they remove dangerous content accessed by the Southport killer.
“Companies should not be profiting from hosting content that puts children’s lives at risk”, she warned.
Announcing a swathe of reforms in the wake of the horrific attacks in Southport last summer, Ms Cooper said ministers will be “contacting technology companies to ask them to remove dangerous material that he accessed”.
She also said that a Prevent “learning review” had been commissioned in the summer and detailed findings will be published following the sentencing of Rudakubana.
While Ms Cooper said the government was previously constrained in what it could say about Rudakubana’s background “to avoid prejudicing any jury trial”, shadow home secretary Chris Philp argued that further information could have been made public without prejudicing the court.
“Does she accept there should and could have been more openness and transparency, as I just set out, without prejudicing the trial and that disclosing more of that truth, openly and transparently, would have helped combat the damaging misinformation that circulated and which arguably fuelled the riots?”, Mr Philp asked.
Meanwhile, in a statement on social media, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the government was “hiding behind” contempt of court when the country needed to know the truth about Rudakubana and the fact that he was known to the authorities.
“Even MPs were banned from asking questions about this man’s background. Cover up Keir convinces no one,” Mr Farage said.
Responding to Mr Philp, Ms Cooper said the government was keen to publish more information but added that the advice was clear.
