'Catastrophic' failures by state led to Southport attack, inquiry finds

Axel Rudakubana was able to carry out the Southport atrocity because of "catastrophic" failures by multiple agencies and the "irresponsible and harmful" role of his parents, a damning inquiry has found.

- Josh Halliday North of England editor

Sir Adrian Fulford condemned the “inappropriate merry-go-round” of state bodies passing the buck and their “frankly depressing” refusal to accept responsibility, saying: “This culture has to end.”

The inquiry chair said the murder of the three girls - Bebe King, six, Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven - and stabbing of 10 others was not a “bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky”, adding: “Instead, some form of grave violence... had been clearly, repeatedly and unambiguously signposted over many years.”

Fulford said the attack of “unparalleled cruelty” happened after a “complete failure” of Britain’s multi-agency model. He urged ministers to establish a dedicated agency to oversee complex offenders such as Rudakubana.

Keir Starmer described the findings as “truly harrowing and profoundly disturbing”. The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, told the Commons new legislation would be introduced to cover mass-casualty attacks that had no terrorism motive.

Mahmood said the second phase of the inquiry, which is due to report next spring, would make recommendations on a new body to tackle boys whose minds were “warped by time spent in isolation online”.

The three bereaved families called for “immediate action, clear accountability and real change - not simply reassurances that lessons have been learned”. The parents of 22 of the girls who survived the attack said there needed to be “whole-scale system reform across health and social care, education and policing”.

Rudakubana was jailed for life last year after his ferocious assault on the young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in the Merseyside town on 29 July 2024. The teenager, who was 17 at the time, had been on the state's radar for nearly five years by the time of his attack, which sparked racist riots in cities and towns across England.