The risk Southport killer Axel Rudakubana posed to others was toned down by professionals for fear of being accused of racism, a report into the massacre claims.
Born in Wales to parents who had fled Rwanda, he was enrolled at The Acorns School, a pupil referral unit in Ormskirk, Lancashire, at the age of 13 after being expelled from mainstream education for taking a knife into class.
Headteacher Joanne Hodson told the public inquiry that, from his first day, she realised the teenager was ‘very high risk’, with a manner ‘devoid of any remorse’.
But when she tried to raise the risk he posed to others, Mrs Hodson said she was accused by children’s mental health worker Samantha Steed of ‘racially stereotyping [Rudakubana] as ‘a black boy with a knife”.
Mrs Hodson told the inquiry that the accusation of ‘racial profiling’ had ‘effectively shut me up’.
The warning about the risk Rudakubana posed – which featured in a draft of his education, health and care plan – remained in the document.
But parts were rewritten, such as a reference to his ‘sinister’ internet use being replaced with the word ‘inappropriate’.
Inquiry chairman Sir Adrian Fulford concluded that it was ‘unwise’ for Ms Steed ‘to raise issues of racial stereotyping’.
While there was no suggestion she made a ‘direct accusation of racial stereotyping against Mrs Hodson, the fact that such a contentious topic was raised nevertheless served to ‘close down’ Mrs Hodson,’ Sir Adrian wrote.
He added that ‘Mrs Hodson was raising a valid point about the need for a risk assessment’, and this was ‘another example of insufficient emphasis being placed on the risks that child may present to others.’
The inquiry into the 2024 murders concluded yesterday that it was the ‘catastrophic’ failures of Rudakubana’s parents and other agencies which meant that chances to prevent the attack were missed.
Sir Adrian said if his parents had done ‘what they morally ought to have’ and reported his suspicious behaviour, he would not have been free on the day of the attack.
The inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall heard that the killer’s autism had been used as an excuse for his past behaviour while a ‘merry-go-round’ of referrals and assessments meant no agency understood how dangerous the teenager was.
At the conclusion of his 760-page report into the attack, Sir Adrian called for the end of a ‘culture’ of agencies passing responsibility between each other.
Those he criticised included Lancashire Police, the government’s counter-extremism service Prevent, various NHS mental health services, and the County Council among other services.
He said: ‘This failure lies at the heart of why [Rudakubana] was able to mount the attack, despite so many warning signs of his capacity for fatal violence.’
Now, Sir Adrian has called for urgent reforms adding that he hopes this will mark a ‘genuine turning point’.
He described Rudakubana as a ‘aggressive, near-total recluse, who bullied and threatened his family and unashamedly lied to officials’.
The inquiry revealed a pattern of mental health services and social care treating the teenager’s autism spectrum disorder as an ‘excuse’ for his behaviour rather than seeing that in Rudakubana’s case this ‘significantly increased the risk that he posed’.
Sir Adrian said different agencies showed a ‘scant regard’ and a ‘lack of curiosity’ over Rudakubana’s internet usage.
‘I have no hesitation in concluding that the degrading, violent and misogynistic material that [Rudakubana] was viewing online contributed to and ‘fed’ his already unhealthy fascination with violence,’ he wrote.
The inquiry heard a number of other concerning instances which involved Rudakubana.
In December 2019, Rudakubana carried out an attack on a boy with a hockey stick at the Range High School in Formby, just months after he had been expelled for admitting carrying a knife.
Sir Adrian described this instance as a ‘watershed moment’ and that it proved ‘beyond doubt’ he ‘was motivated by an ensuring desire to inflict severe harm on and possibly kill another pupil’.
In another serious incident in March 2022, Lancashire Police Officers found Rudakubana on a buds with a knife after he was reported missing.
Sir Adrian said this was the ‘most marked example of the consequences of poor information sharing’.
If the teenager had been arrested it would have likely led to his home being searched and, in the words of Sir Adrian, ‘critical information’ such as the ricin seeds and the terrorist manuals he had downloaded might have been uncovered.
But Rudakubana was instead returned to his home in Banks, West Lancashire, with no further criminal action taken.
In response, Lancashire Constabulary’s Chief Constable Sacha Hatchett, in words reported by BBC News, said the force accepted there was an ‘opportunity’ to arrest the killer that day and added: ‘I am extremely sorry for this’.
Sir Adrian said had his parents reported their true level of knowledge to the authorities before the attack he would have been ‘undoubtedly have been taken into care or held in custody’.
Stark criticism was levelled against his father, Alphonse Rudakubana, who Sir Adrian said had deliberately withheld information about his son’s stash of of deadly weapons.
While Sir Adrian did accept that Rudakubana made his parent’s life ‘a nightmare’ had said they failed to act out of a ‘misguided and irresponsible’ desire to avoid him being taken into care.
The inquiry concluded phase one of the report. The 67 recommendations of the report call for a joined up approach with agencies able to share information more effectively.
Speaking yesterday, the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the government were determined to ‘take the necessary action to reduce the risk of such an attack happening again’.
Mahmood said that Phase Two of the inquiry will focus on the ‘adequacy of arrangements for identifying and managing the risk posed by individuals who are fixated with extreme violence’.
This will include examining how agencies worked together, laws around knives and weapons, and the influence of the internet and social media.
