Anti-terror group failed to stop Southport atrocity

COUNTER-TERROR programme Prevent failed to stop the Southport stabbings or the murder of MP Sir David Amess - with a review warning that “lessons must be learned” from the tragedies.

- By Chris Riches

Genocide-obsessed killer Axel Rudakubana should have been monitored and steered away from evil, the independent Prevent commissioner Lord David Anderson KC says in his report.

He stressed the government programme must focus on changing people fascinated by violence, even if counter-terrorism police find no evidence of an ideological motive.

Lord Anderson concluded: “Prevent failed to provide what might have helped them.

“Whether different decisions might have spared their victims will never be known. Both attacks came years later, and many imponderables intervened. But wrong decisions were taken. More should have been done. And from these failures, lessons must continue to be learned.”