Southport child killings were one of 'most egregious crimes' in UK history

The Southport child killings were “one of the most egregious crimes in our country’s history”, a public inquiry into the tragedy heard today.

Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event last July.

Their killer Axel Rudakubana, 18, is serving a minimum of 52 years behind bars after pleading guilty to the murders. He also admitted ten counts of attempted murder, producing ricin and possessing an Al Qaeda training manual.

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After the killings it emerged he had been referred to the Prevent programme three times as a schoolboy. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced a public inquiry into the tragedy in January.

Sir Adrian Fulford, who presided over the trial of Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens, is chairing the two-phase review. The first will look at policing, the criminal justice system and the agencies that were involved with Rudakubana. It will then examine the wider issue of young people being drawn into violent extremism.

Sir Adrian opened the hearings at Liverpool Town Hall by delivering a hard-hitting statement.

He said Rudakubana was responsible for “one of the most egregious crimes in our country’s history”.

“None of the most powerful adjectives even begin to suffice,” he added.

He said the crimes “impose the heaviest of burdens on our society” to investigate how he was able to “cause such devastation”.

Sir Adrian said he will respect the families wishes by referring to Rudakubana as “the perpetrator” or “AR” during the hearings.

He promised to “identify without fear or favour all of the relevant failings”.

“This Inquiry is expected to act as a real engine for change given the unparalleled nature of what occurred,” he said.

“I am determined it will not turn into an exercise of papering over the cracks.”

He vowed to make recommendations to stop “others who may be drawn to treating their fellow human beings in such a cruel and inhuman way.”

“As a society we are not helpless when confronted with individuals who are known to be contemplating acts of such depravity,” he said.

“Although no solution will be foolproof, we can identify all of the robust steps which should be taken to protect ourselves, and particularly the most vulnerable, from horrors of this kind.

“And this must be undertaken at speed, to provide answers for the victims and their families and to identify all of the changes that urgently need to be made.”

Sir Adrian listed some of the "undisputed but troubling facts" which he anticipated would be heard.

They included two incidents where Rudakubana was found with a knife, once at a school which he had been excluded from.

He said the killer had obtained a 20cm chef's knife for the attack. And he said other items found in his home included two types of machete, a sledgehammer and substances used to make ricin.

Sir Adrian held a minute’s silence for the victims and to “acknowledge the ordeal of the survivors” and their families.

He said the evidence “tends to suggest that far from being an unforeseeable catastrophic event, the perpetrator posed a very serious and significant risk of violent harm, with a particular and known predilection for knife crime”.

Sir Adrian said Rudakubana’s ability to access “gravely violent material” and order knives online “speaks to a whole and general failure to intervene effectively, or indeed at all, to address the risks that he posed”.

“The Inquiry will therefore scrutinise with care the actions of those involved in responding to these events and the threat posed by the perpetrator,” he continued.

“Without simply being wise after the event, was the response and assessment of risk sufficient? Was information properly shared? Was the understanding of risk kept up to date?”

He said Rudakubana’s previous dealings with Prevent mean he will “need to reflect on whether our country has in the place the mechanisms to enable effective intervention in cases such as the present”.

“The State’s well-established counter measures against ‘terrorism’ are of course vital,” he said.

“But does that machinery adequately address young people who are drawn into extreme violence without an accompanying commitment to a particular religious or political cause?

“Put shortly, should there be more effective mechanisms for identifying those who are contemplating serious offences, for monitoring their behaviour and for controlling their activities?”

He said the Inquiry will look into whether the government can impose restrictions on people “when there is strong evidence that they intend to commit serious violent crime but they have not yet taken steps such as to justify their arrest or prosecution”.

Sir Adrian called on the media not to use the police-issued mugshot of Rudakubana, taken after his arrest.

He said the victims and their families had told him the photo was a “terrifying and singularly distressing image”.

“Seeing the face of the perpetrator, often without any warning, has the potential to be significantly re-traumatising,” he added.

“Every time this unsettling image is re-posted or re-broadcast, those responsible take on themselves the risk of causing real distress, thereby disrupting the process of rebuilding broken lives.

“I suggest this image, in the context of reporting on the Inquiry, serves no credible journalistic purpose and only causes harm.

“I therefore urge all media outlets to refrain from using it when reporting on our proceedings.

“I will consider such further measures as are available to me should it prove necessary.”

The hearings will continue tomorrow with evidence from four families whose children were injured in the knife attacks.