Starmer to give emergency address amid public inquiry as he admits state ‘failed’ to prevent Southport attack
21 January 2025, 01:29 | Updated: 21 January 2025, 07:09
Starmer will address the nation Tuesday morning as he admits the state 'failed' to protect the three girls that were murdered in the Southport attack, adding that the government has "grave questions to answer".
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The Prime Minister will deliver an emergency address after the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced a public inquiry into how the state failed to identify the risk posed by the Southport killer.
Axel Rudakubana, who pleaded guilty on Monday to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July, was referred three times to anti-extremism programme Prevent amid concerns over his fixation with violence.
Despite this his case has never been treated as terror-related by police as he did not appear to follow an ideology, such as Islamism or racial hatred, and instead appeared to be motivated by an interest in extreme violence.
Announcing the inquiry on Monday evening, Ms Cooper said the country needed "independent answers" on Prevent and other agencies' contact with the "extremely violent" Rudakubana and "how he came to be so dangerous".
Following Rudakubana's guilty pleas, Keir Starmer described the 18-year-old as "vile and sick", and said there were "grave questions to answer" on how the state "failed" to protect the three girls.
The Prime Minister added: "Britain will rightly demand answers, and we will leave no stone unturned in that pursuit."
The 18-year-old reportedly booked a taxi to go to Range High School in Formby, which he was expelled from five years earlier, on July 22 as pupils broke up for the summer holidays.
Seven days later, he travelled by taxi to The Hart Space and murdered Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club.
On both occasions he is said to have been wearing the same outfit, a green hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and a surgical mask.
Ten minutes after his taxi was booked, at 12.30pm, pupils were due to leave school on their last day of term but his father followed him out of the house and pleaded with the taxi driver not to take him.
Rudakubana had been permanently excluded from the secondary school over claims he was carrying a knife.
Rudakubana pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday to murdering the three young girls at the Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
He also pleaded guilty to the attempted murders of eight children and two adults, producing a biological toxin, ricin, and the possession of an al-Qaeda training manual - a terror offence.
The Home Secretary has launched a public inquiry into the attacks to "get to the truth about what happened and what needs to change".
Yvette Cooper said "independent answers" were needed on Prevent and other agencies that came into contact with Rudakubana.
This comes following reports Rudakubana attacked pupils of his former school with a hockey stick when he was 13-years-old following his expulsion.
He was sent to a pupil referral unit in Lancashire but returned to the school with a hockey stick and a “hit list” of students he wanted to attack.
He reportedly returned to the school in December 2019 with a hockey stick and assaulted a pupil, breaking their wrist.
Pupils were locked in their classrooms during the incident before Rudakubana was reportedly tackled to the ground by the headmaster.
Describing Rudakubana's attempted hockey-stick attack on his former classmates, one pupil said how the teenager had a "hit list of people he wanted to hurt".
He said: “Because he was an ex-student a teacher had let him into the building thinking he was still at the school. He came in with a hockey stick and was running around the corridors trying to beat everyone up. He had a hit list of people he didn’t like and wanted to hurt.”
Another pupil added: “All the teachers were closing the doors and not letting anyone out of the lessons.
“He ran down to the language block and he was trying to find [a boy] specifically, I think, with a hockey stick, and he was trying to attack him with it. So then our headteacher had to jump on him and kind of escort him out.”
A third friend said: “We were walking around the corridors and the next minute, you know, I just saw a big bright yellow coat running towards me. And then he went to hit [a boy] over the head with the stick.
“But luckily the headteacher tackled him to the ground and then he was just on the floor with the headteacher on top of him.”
