Southport killer had ‘sickening and sustained interest’ in violence, UK officials say

The teenager had become more and more withdrawn, even from his family. He rarely left his home, a red brick house on a quiet cul-de-sac in the village of Banks, near the west coast of England.

Alone with his thoughts, he endlessly scrolled through online images and descriptions of war, torture and death, fueling an obsession with genocide and murder.

And then, on a beautiful morning last summer, Axel Rudakubana took a taxi to a children’s dance class in Southport, England. Knife in hand, he lashed out at a crowded room where girls on summer vacation had gathered to dance to Taylor Swift and make friendship bracelets. He murdered three and injured eight other children and two adults.

In the months since the July 29 attack, police and prosecutors have scrambled to trace the steps that led to the wave of killings that horrified Britain. They interviewed witnesses, reviewed hours of surveillance video and examined thousands of documents, downloads and messages from Mr Rudakubana’s devices.

On Monday, after Mr Rudakubana, now 18, pleaded guilty to murder and other charges linked to the Southport attack, restrictions on coverage of his case were lifted.

The picture that emerges, although still limited, is that of a deeply troubled individual whose fascination with violence was brought to the attention of authorities when he was just 13 years old and who was known of several state agencies for years.