Southport killer Axel Rudakubana's terror threat was dismissed by counterterrorism officers as 'interest in world news'
25 January 2025, 23:52
Counterterrorism officers believed twisted Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was just interested in news and current affairs and not in danger of becoming “radicalised”, a leaked Home Office report has revealed.
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The Home Office's leaked Prevent learning review is set to slam counterterrorism officers for failing to properly consider Rudakubana's obsession with extreme violence when it is released, according to The Sunday Times.
The 18-year-old was sentenced to 52 years in jail this week for the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport over the summer.
Three separate referrals were made to Prevent - the Government's anti-terror programme - about Rudakubana's behaviour in the years leading up to the attack. Six separate calls about Rudakubana were also made to police.
The first was made in November 2019 after he researched school shootings during IT class.
A source told The Sunday Times: “He was looking at news articles about mass shootings during IT class and trying to speak to his teacher about it.
"It was odd behaviour for a child so young. The counterterrorism officers decided he had an interest in news and current affairs, but was not in danger of being radicalised.”
A second referral in February 2021 followed reports that he had uploaded images of Colonel Gadaffi to Instagram.
A third, in April 2021, was made because he was found researching the London Bridge terror attack.
But counterterrorism officers assessing his behaviour believed it was not motivated by a terrorist ideology and did not pose a terrorist danger.
He was therefore not considered suitable for the counter-radicalisation scheme.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has highlighted a "serious problem" with cases failing to pass the Prevent threshold while other agencies, such as social services and mental health, failed to step in.
She has ordered a through review to assess the "missed opportunities" to identify the murderous threat Rudakubana posed, which is already reportedly underway.
It will also investigate "obsessed with school massacres" as well as"Islamist extremism", she wrote in The Sunday Times.
She added: "Where individuals are suspected to be neurodiverse, interventions should not stop because they are awaiting assessments, ignoring any risks they might pose."
A Home Office spokesman said: “Prevent remains a vital tool to stopping people from becoming terrorists.
"However, in this case opportunities were missed to intervene.”
Questions have also been raised about Rudakubana's physically violent past.
The killer has previously attacked a pupil with a hockey stick, used school computers to look up the London Bridge terror attack and carried a knife on a bus and into class before he carried out the Southport murders.
Knives, archery arrows and ricin, a biological toxin 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide, were found when police raided Rudakubana's home after the attack.
Evidence suggested the he purchased equipment needed for the substance in 2022.
Police also found an Al Qaeda training document on a tablet belonging to the defendant, the Old Bailey heard.
A prosecutor said: "The manual had been downloaded on three occasions in 2021, meaning that it was already in the defendant's possession when he purchased the castor beans from which he produced the ricin in early 2022. If that is right, then he clearly knew just how deadly a substance it was before he produced it.
"Furthermore, by the time he went to The Hart Space in 2024, the defendant was in possession of instructions in the manual on how to carry out a knife attack with lethal force."
