Police feared Southport killer could be ‘terrorist’ five years before attack

Flowers and tributes outside the Atkinson Art Centre Southport following the attack. Picture: James Speakman/PA
A police officer feared Southport killer Axel Rudakubana could be a terrorist five years before he carried out his deadly attack, an inquiry heard.
Rudakubana killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and attempted to murder 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29 last year.
On Monday, the Southport Inquiry, at Liverpool Town Hall, was shown a December 2019 email from Pc Paul Harrison, of Lancashire Constabulary’s community safety team, who worked on Rudakubana’s case after concerns emerged about him.

Rudakubana, then 13, was excluded from Range High School in Merseyside that October, having admitted he had taken a knife to school multiple times.
The following month at Acorns School in Ormskirk, he was found researching US school shootings during an IT lesson.
Days after he was referred to Prevent, the government’s anti-terror programme, in December 2019, he went back to his old school and attacked a pupil with a hockey stick, causing actual bodily harm, and was found in possession of a knife.
Pc Harrison wrote in an email that the boy’s parents were “alarmingly playing the situation and his behaviour down” and ended with the line “nobody told me I would be dealing with terrorists” with a large number of exclamation marks.
John Goss, counsel for the inquiry, asked Andrew Bramhall, PC Harrison’s sergeant at the time, if the view he was briefed on by the officer was “to the effect, ‘I think he’s a terrorist’”.
Mr Bramhall replied: “That and the fact that Prevent were interested in him would have made me think that he had that kind of leaning.”

Mr Goss said: “It may be that that number of exclamation marks indicates that this is slightly tongue in cheek, but certainly it is flagging a clear view that this is a case where potentially terrorism is an issue and Prevent are involved?”
Mr Bramhall replied: “Yeah.”
Mr Goss asked who was responsible for assessing and addressing the risk that Rudakubana posed to others and Mr Bramhall said it was Prevent.
Detective Constable Paula Murphy, of Merseyside Police, who was involved in the investigation into Rudakubana’s attack at Range High School, said nothing of relevance was found during searches of the teenager’s devices after that incident.
The officer said that Rudakubana behaved inappropriately when she interviewed him and was laughing at some of her questions.
She added that his mother did not challenge his behaviour.
Mr Goss asked her which agency was responsible for assessing and addressing the risk he posed to others.
DC Hughes said: “I think we all had a responsibility in addressing it, I don’t think any one agency had the overall control of it.”
The inquiry continues.