Southport killer's mother 'profoundly sorry' for failure to save 'little angels'

Speaking at the Southport Inquiry, Laetitia Muzayire said there are “no words that can ever be enough to express the grief and remorse for the children whose lives were taken or forever changed by our son's actions."

Rudakubana’s family has this week been speaking for the first time since the teenager murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

Speaking of Rudakubana’s victims, Ms Muzayire continued: "We think of them every single day, and we carry the weight of that loss in our hearts and our prayers.

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"I grieve deeply for my own son, but most of all for the innocent lives lost and the lives that have been devastated.

"There are many things Alphonse and I wish we had done differently, anything that might have prevented this horrific event of 29 July 2014.

"For our failure, we are profoundly sorry."

It comes after Rudakubana’s father, Alphonse, apologised for lacking the “courage” to stop his son committing the murders.

"I'm so desperately sorry for them and everyone else," he told the inquiry.

"I cry for them all the time."

He he said Rudakubana "turned to be a monster.”

“So when I cry for him, I remember them, I cry for them.

"I'm so ashamed I lost the courage to save the little angels and I'm so, so sorry."

Alphonse Rudakubana admitted he thought the ricin seeds and chemistry equipment his son purchased online were because of his "interest in gardening" - despite never seeing him garden.

In his statement, the killer’s father said he didn't "suspect that the items were in any way dangerous" until after the Southport stabbings.

Alphonse also admitted to trying to manipulate several agencies dealing with his son before the murders.

Continuing his evidence to the Southport Inquiry, Alphonse was questioned why he did not want information about his son, in a report by the Child & Family Wellbeing Service (CFWS), to be shared with his youth offending team.

“Axel had proven himself to get himself in trouble for the things he said carelessly,” Mr Rudakubana said.

“I was worried that the confidentiality breach would happen again and he would put himself in trouble.

“I was worried for him because I found the assessment by CFWS very intrusive.”

Asked whether he can now see that he was “trying inappropriately to manipulate the agencies” by asking for information not to be shared, he said: “I can see it now.”

Alphonse Rudakubana claimed he would have faced an “immediate violent response” if he ever tried to control his son.

In a statement read out by Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquiry, Alphonse said: “I did not over-accommodate AR.

“Had I tried to exert control, there would be have been an immediate violent response.

“There may have been an element of resignation but I was not blithe.”

He admitted that he withheld “some information” about his son from mental health services, including that he had been purchasing knives.

He told the inquiry that he knew by July 2024 that his son had bought knives and a jerry can.

That month, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) concluded in an assessment that Rudakubana did not pose a risk to others, the inquiry heard.

Responding to the suggestion that there was a “massive difference” between what the father knew about his son’s collection of weapons and the CAMHS assessment, he said: “I believe he posed a risk to me, only me.”

Asked whether he accepts he withheld information from mental health services seeking to help his son, he said: “Some information, yes.”

Alphonse Rudakubana also told the inquiry that he thought at the time that he was supporting his son’s treatment, adding: “But I fell short, now, looking back.”