How Axel Rudakubana descended into murderous rampage: Full timeline of Southport attack as killer jailed

23 January 2025, 16:57

Axel Rudakubana's motive for killing three young girls in Southport is hard to understand, the judge who jailed him for at least 52 years said - but the below timeline of events gives some context for the murders.

Here is a timeline of events relating to the case.

- 2002:

Rudakubana's father Alphonse moves to the UK from Rwanda, according to an interview he gave to his local newspaper in Southport in 2015.

- 2006:

Rudakubana is born on August 7 in Cardiff, Wales.

- 2013:

The family - including Rudakubana's father, mother and older brother - move from Wales to Banks in Lancashire, a few miles from Southport.

- 2019:

Axel Rudakubana becomes known to a range of local agencies due to anxiety, social isolation and challenging behaviour.

In October, Rudakubana is excluded from school after telling Childline that he was being racially bullied and was bringing a knife into school to protect himself.

In December, after his exclusion, he returns to the school and assaults someone with a hockey stick, the intended target being a former bully or someone he had a grievance with, it is understood.

He receives a youth justice referral order for the assault - a measure where juveniles who plead guilty to their first offence are placed under supervision to try to stop them re-offending - and completes this in 2021.

Axel Rudakubana sentenced to life with 52-year tariff

- 2019 to May 2022:

Police have several interactions with him, including responding to five calls from his home address relating to concerns about his behaviour. On each occasion, referrals are made to a multi-agency safeguarding hub.

Three referrals are also made by education providers to the Government anti-extremism scheme Prevent between December 2019 and April 2021.

He is aged between 13 and 14.

Taxi footage shows Axel Rudakubana travelling to carry out attack

- February 2023:

Rudakubana has stopped engaging with mental health workers, is struggling to attend school and has anxiety that makes him unwilling to leave his house.

- 2024:

- July 22: A week before launching the knife attack, Rudakubana attempts to travel to his former school as pupils broke up for the summer holidays.

Ten minutes after his taxi to Range High School in Formby was booked, at 12.30pm, pupils were due to leave the school premises on their last day of term, it is understood.

However, his father follows him out of the house and pleads with the taxi driver not to take him.

- July 29: Wearing a green sweatshirt with the hood up and a surgical mask, Rudakubana is seen on footage speaking to the driver of a taxi from the back of the car after arriving on Hart Street in Southport.

Rudakubana repeatedly ignores the driver when asked how he wanted to pay.

"That's it yeah, it's down there, it's a spray shop," the driver tells Rudakubana during the 21-second clip.

"A spray shop, are you sure?" the killer appears to reply, before being asked again if he wanted to pay "with cash or card mate?"

After looking down at his phone for several seconds, Rudakubana climbs out of the taxi shutting the door behind him, dodging a third attempt by the driver to get him to pay.

The driver follows him demanding payment, but he is again ignored.

Shortly before midday, chilling footage shows the moment Rudakubana strolls up to the entrance of a dance class at The Hart Space.

The 18-year-old has the hood of his green jumper up and a surgical mask on during the 22-second clip which sees him approach the building before entering.

Bebe, Elsie and Alice are fatally wounded. Eight other children are injured, as are instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes. Police say they have detained a male and seized a knife.

After being taken into custody, Rudakubana tells officers: "I'm so glad those kids are dead, it makes me happy."

Within hours, just after 5.15pm, Merseyside Police releases a statement confirming "that the incident is not currently being treated as terror-related", and this remains the case to date.

Axel Rudakubana CCTV footage of killer on street near The Hart Space

- July 30:

Rudakubana's home in Old School Close, Banks is searched by police, where they find knives, archery arrows and a mystery substance later found to be ricin, a biological toxin 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide.

The poison is found in a sealed food container under his bed, where officers also find a pair of safety goggles, a lab beaker and a pestle and mortar.

A bag which had contained castor seeds, used to make the substance, is also found.

The search is halted and the substance is sent to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) in Porton Down near Salisbury for analysis.

Separately, in the evening, a peaceful vigil is held outside Southport's Atkinson arts venue, where flowers are laid in memory of those who died. Shortly after the vigil, a separate protest begins outside the town's mosque in St Luke's Road.

People throw items towards the mosque, property is damaged and police vehicles are set on fire.

- July 31:

Rudakubana is charged with three counts of murder, 10 of attempted murder, and one of possession of a knife in a public place. He is not named by police because of his age.

Demonstrators gather in Whitehall, London, for an "Enough Is Enough" protest. Flares and cans are thrown at police and more than 100 people are arrested. Disorder also breaks out in Hartlepool, County Durham, and Aldershot, Hampshire.

- August 1:

Lab results suggest that the unknown substance is ricin.

It can be fatal when inhaled, ingested, injected or swallowed.

Rudakubana appears in court in Liverpool and Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Andrew Menary KC rules he can be named, as he is due to turn 18 in a week.

He initially smiled on entering the courtroom - then kept his face covered by his sweatshirt for the remainder of the proceedings before the case was adjourned.

Later that evening, demonstrators gather outside a hotel in Newton Heath, Manchester.

- August 2:

The substance is confirmed by the Dstl to be ricin.

The form the poison was found in was deemed to be "low to very low risk".

Three police officers are taken to hospital after separate disorder in Sunderland.

- August 3: There are scenes of violence during planned protests across the UK, including in Liverpool, Hull, Nottingham and Belfast.

- August 4: Disorder continues, including outside a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where masked demonstrators launch lengths of wood and sprayed fire extinguishers at police officers.

- August 5: The Government holds an emergency Cobra meeting in the wake of the disorder and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vows to "ramp up criminal justice". That evening, a peaceful vigil is held in Southport, a week on from the killings. Police deal with disorder in Plymouth, Devon and Darlington, County Durham.

- August 7: Prison sentences for those involved in the unrest begin to be handed out. Derek Drummond, 58, is the first person to be jailed for violent disorder at Liverpool Crown Court, where he is sentenced to three years.

More than 100 protests are planned for across the country, with counter-demonstrations taking place, but the majority of police forces report very little trouble.

Vanessa Feltz is struck by the ‘manipulation’ of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana

- Unconfirmed date in September: Merseyside Police pass a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) concerning the ricin and an al Qaida training manual found in Rudakubana's possession.

- October 29: Merseyside Police announces Rudakubana will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court via videolink the next day charged with production of a biological toxin, Ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.

Among the items found on two tablet computers belonging to the 18-year-old were documents including A Concise History Of Nazi Germany and The Myth Of The Remote Controlled Car Bomb.

The Government insists that the timing of the decision to announce the charges was purely a decision for the CPS, amid calls for more information to be released by politicians including Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Nigel Farage.

The ricin charge required the authorisation of government officers the attorney general or solicitor general to proceed, and the BBC reports that senior government figures had been told about the new charges a few weeks before.

- October 30: Rudakubana appears at Westminster Magistrates' Court via videolink from HMP Belmarsh to face the two new charges. He holds his sweater over the bottom half of his face and does not respond when asked to confirm his name.

- November 13: Rudakubana appears at Liverpool Crown Court via videolink. He covers his face with his grey sweatshirt and does not speak throughout the hearing. About 20 family members of victims sit in the public gallery. The case is adjourned until December 12 for a scheduled preparatory hearing.

- 2025:

- January 20: Rudakubana appears at Liverpool Crown Court for the first day of his trial where he pleads guilty to all 16 charges, including the murders of Alice, Bebe and Elsie Dot.

The Government announces an inquiry into how the state failed to identify the risk posed by the killer.

- Tuesday January 21

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper tells the Commons that Rudakubana had admitted carrying a knife 10 times, and that he had bought the murder weapon on Amazon despite having a previous conviction for violence over the hockey stick incident and being underage.

- January 23: Rudakubana is sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court for life with a minimum term of 52 years.

Sentencing, Mr Justice Goose says: "The prosecution have made it clear this does not meet the definition of an act of terrorism within the meaning of the legislation as there is no evidence the purpose was to advance a particular political or ideological cause. I must accept that conclusion.

"However, his culpability is equivalent in its seriousness to terrorist murders, whatever his purpose.

"What he did on July 29 caused such shock and revulsion that it must be seen as the most extreme level of crime."