'Suitable for combat'

Retailer who sold machete to Southport killer had a police caution for marketing of blades

- TOM PETTIFOR

THE boss of a knife retailer which sold a “fearsome” machete to Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was previously cautioned by police for selling blades.

Joseph Wheeler, the managing director of Knife Warehouse, told the public inquiry into the attack that the blade the firm sold to the killer was “just another product”.

Mr Wheeler was free to sell deadly weapons despite being given a police caution in 2015 after marketing his knives as “suitable for combat”.

Rudakubana, 17, launched the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29 last year with a knife he bought on Amazon.

He murdered schoolgirls Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, as well as injuring eight other girls and two adults.