'Nobody told me I would be dealing with terrorists' - PC said

POLICE CONTACTED OVER SOUTHPORT KILLER'S OBSESSION WITH SHOOTINGS

- By PATRICK EDRICH

Sergeant Andrew Bramhall speaks at the Inquiry

A police officer told his superior “nobody told me I would be dealing with terrorists” after school shooting-obsessed Axel Rudakubana attacked a child with a hockey stick.

Lancashire Constabulary Police Constable Paul Harrison, who worked on the force's community safety team, became aware of Rudakubana in late 2019 after he was contacted by the teenager's school about his unhealthy obsession with guns and beheadings.

The officer helped The Acorns School refer Southport killer Rudakubana to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), but the events were overtaken when the teenage killer went to his former school, The Range in Formby, on December 11, 2019 and assaulted another child with the hockey stick while armed with a knife.

But the ongoing Southport Inquiry heard PC Harrison and his sergeant, Andrew Bramhall, were not aware that the force had dealt with Rudakubana just months before when he called Childline and said he was prepared to use a knife on an alleged bully.

Rudakubana, who is only being referred to as AR in the ongoing proceedings, murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and injured 10 other people when he “specifically targeted” a Taylor Swift themed dance party at the Hart Space in Southport on July 29 last year.

The inquiry heard yesterday, Monday, that the two officers were invited to a MASH meeting about Rudakubana on December 17 of the same year, with the now former sergeant telling proceedings he had an understanding of the child’s background but he had not done any research. He instead was reliant on PC Harrison who ahead of the meeting had emailed a chief inspector: "Nobody told me I would be dealing with terrorists".