Parents asked police four times for help with killer

Axel Rudakubana's parents asked police for help to cope with their violence-obsessed son in one of a string of callouts over his worrying behaviour before the Southport attack, it can be revealed.

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN

Officers from Lancashire Constabulary attended the family’s three-bedroom home four times between 2021 and 2022, but each time failed to identify the threat he posed. The revelations come after the 18-year-old was sentenced to at least 52 years in prison for carrying out the horrific attack.

Officers said on their last visit on 14 May 2022 – made after Rudakubana’s father called the police claiming his son’s behaviour had escalated because they denied him access to a computer – the family appealed to the officers for help with his behaviour. It came just two months after he was found carrying a knife on a bus after his mother had reported him missing. Officers took him back to their property in Banks, Lancashire, where they gave the mother advice on securing knives in the home.

In another callout on 30 November 2021, it was reported that Rudakubana had kicked his father Alphonse, a minicab driver, and damaged his car. However, the father did not want to press charges. It was the second time police had called to the property that month, after Rudakubana became distressed when a stranger came to the door on 5 November that year.

On each callout, officers made a vulnerable child referral to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (Mash), a partnership of agencies including police, education, social and healthcare teams designed to work together to identify and address risks to children and vulnerable adults.