Sir Keir Starmer to make statement on Southport attack investigation

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is due to make a statement from Number 10 on Tuesday morning about the public inquiry into the Southport attack in which three young girls were stabbed to death.

Axel Rudakubana, eighteen years old pleaded guilty on Monday for killing Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last year.

Sir Keir described Rudakubana as “vile and sick” and said there were “serious questions that needed to be answered” about how the state “failed” to protect the girls.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said “many questions remain unanswered” and the public needed to know “who in government knew what and when”.

Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the murders, had been referred to the Prevent program three times, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said, between December 2019 and April 2021, when he was aged 13 and 14 years old.

The killer was already known to the police, courts and social services, she said, “but between them these agencies failed to identify the terrible risk and danger he posed to others.” .

On Monday, Rudakubana admitted 16 charges, including the murder of the three girls on July 29 last year.

He also pleaded guilty to attempted murder of eight children and two adults, possession of a knife on the day of the murders, producing a biological toxin, ricin, and possession of an Al-Qaeda training manual – a terrorist offense.

This followed not guilty pleas entered on his behalf at a court hearing in December last year.

Sir Keir, who is due to speak from Downing Street at 8:30 GMT, said on Monday that “Britain will rightly demand answers, and we will leave no stone unturned in this pursuit.”

Announcing the public inquiry, Cooper said it was “vital that the families and residents of Southport can get answers about how this terrible attack could have happened and why this happened to their children “.

Britain’s Conservatives and Reformers have accused authorities of withholding information about Rudakubana’s interest in violence and terrorism.

However, Cooper said Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyers had made it clear that these details “could not be made public until today to avoid compromising the court proceedings or prejudicing a possible jury trial, in accordance with normal rules of the British legal system. “.

She added that over the summer the Home Office had commissioned an urgent study by Prevent Learning into the three referrals relating to Rudakubana and that further details of this study would be published this week, alongside new reforms to the Prevent program.

Cooper acknowledged that “increasing numbers of teenagers” were being referred to the Prevent program or under investigation by counter-terrorism police or other agencies, due to fears of “serious violence and extremism “.

“We need to understand why this is happening and what needs to change,” she added.

Philp welcomed the public inquiry into the “devastating attack” as the girls’ families “deserve answers… to ensure this never happens again”.

“Many questions remain unanswered about what went wrong,” he said.

“We also need to know who in government knew what and when, as well as why authorities withheld certain information from the public.

“As Jonathan Hall, independent reviewer of counter-terrorism legislation, has said in the past, it is important to be open at an early stage to maintain public trust.”

British Reform leader Nigel Farage claimed the handling of the Southport affair was “one of the worst cover-ups” he had seen in his life – saying he had asked questions about whether Rudakubana was known to authorities but that he had received “no response”. and had on the contrary been “completely vilified”.

Following court proceedings, Merseyside Police Chief Serena Kennedy denied any cover-up.

She said: “We have been accused of deliberately withholding information – that is absolutely not the case.

“From day one we have been as open as possible and have been in constant contact with the CPS who have advised us on what information could be released.

“We wanted to say a lot more to show we were open and transparent, but we were always told we couldn’t do that because it would risk doing justice.”

“We will never know why he did this,” she said, adding: “What we can say is that in all these documents, no ideology was discovered, and that is why it was not treated as terrorism.”

The BBC has learned that before the attack Rudakubana had been referred to Prevent over concerns about his general obsession with violence.

In December 2019, Rudakubana – then aged 13 – returned to the school from which he had been expelled and attacked a student with a hockey stick, breaking his wrist.

The same year he told the NSPCC’s Childline that he was going to take a knife to school due to racial bullying, which was above the threshold for referral to the local authority.

Speaking outside court on Monday, Ursula Doyle, prosecutor for the CPS, said Rudakubana was “a young man with a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence – he showed no signs of remorse”.

Matt Jukes, head of the counter-terrorism police, said a full investigation would take place now that Rudakubana had pleaded guilty.

“The same determination we showed during the investigation will now be applied to examine how the various agencies involved in Rudakubana failed to come together effectively to identify and manage the risk he posed,” he said. declared.

Rudakubana is due to be sentenced on Thursday and is expected to receive a life sentence.

However, he cannot receive a life sentence for his crimes because he is under 21 years old.