Inquiry hears Southport killer’s parents knew he was ordering knives online before attack

The public inquiry into the July 29, 2024, Southport killings was told on Tuesday that the parents of the attacker knew their teenage son was ordering knives online before he murdered three girls at a dance class.

Counsel to the inquiry, Nicholas Moss KC, said fingerprints belonging to the attacker’s mother, Laetitia Muzayire, 53, were found on the packaging of the eight-inch kitchen knife used in the attack. The inquiry heard that the attacker, then 17, used online suppliers' age checks by entering his father’s details or using false driving licences to obtain bladed items.

Moss told the hearing at Liverpool Town Hall that the father, Alphonse Rudakubana, 49, admitted to police that he once took delivery of a bladed item — later identified as a 22-inch machete — and hid it from his son. The father said he intercepted at least one parcel a year before the killings and hid the item on top of a wardrobe despite the son asking for it.

The inquiry will seek to explore when the family discovered the packaging for the specific knife used in the attack; that packaging, found in a carrier bag on the first-floor landing of the family home in Banks near Southport, bore the mother’s fingerprint, Moss said. The couple, who fled the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and claimed asylum in the U.K. in 2002, told police they were afraid to confront their son because they feared he might attack them or his older brother.

Moss said a range of professionals who had contact with the family in the years before the atrocity — including teachers, mental health workers and other agency staff — would give evidence that they took issue with the parents’ actions as the son’s behaviour deteriorated. A psychiatrist told the inquiry she asked for a colleague to take over the patient’s care because she found the father to be "intimidating and verbally aggressive." A headteacher said she lost the parents’ support when she informed them their son had been referred to Prevent, the government’s counter-extremism programme, for a third time.

The attacker, who admitted murder and was jailed for a minimum of 52 years at Liverpool Crown Court in January, is not being named in the inquiry hearings and is referred to by his initials, AR. He turned 18 a few weeks after the attack and therefore did not receive a whole life order. The victims were identified as Bebe King, six; Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven; and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine.

Police and inquiry lawyers have identified a stock of weapons and disturbing material in the attacker’s bedroom, the hearing was told. Items seized after the attack included multiple blades, a machete found under a bed and a quantity of the poison ricin. Investigators also recovered violent and extremist material from digital devices, including an image of Mohammed Emwazi, known as "Jihadi John," passages from the Quran, and an Al-Qaeda training manual that the attacker downloaded at about age 15. Other imagery included Nazi-related material and an image with the caption "Just be a lone wolf bro," Moss said.

Moss said police had "assessed" that the attacker had seen an Instagram post advertising the dance event, which was published on the accounts of the two teachers who organised it, although officers had been unable to access the attacker’s account to verify this directly. The inquiry has requested information from Meta, the parent company of Instagram, and has also sought a statement from X, formerly Twitter, about how the attacker was able to view footage of a stabbing in Australia less than 10 minutes before he set out. Responses are still awaited, Moss said.

The inquiry is examining why several agencies — including the police, the courts, the NHS and local authorities — did not identify the risk the young man posed and whether the attack could or should have been prevented. The attacker had been under the care of mental health services for several years but was formally discharged six days before the killings. He had been referred to Prevent three times but, the inquiry heard, his case was closed on each occasion because he did not have an identifiable religion or ideology.

Teachers raised concerns as early as February 2021 that he "could easily be radicalised" and, although not at that time active, would pose a "huge risk" if radicalisation occurred. By the time of the attack he had not attended school for more than two years and various agencies had struggled to engage with him. One teacher wrote in March 2023 that "short of breaking in (to his home) I don't know how to see this kid," Moss told the inquiry.

Merseyside Police have previously said no one who may have assisted or failed to stop the attacker would face criminal charges in relation to the events of July 29. The public inquiry, chaired by retired judge Sir Adrian Fulford, will continue to hear evidence on whether family members, public agencies and private companies could have acted differently to prevent the attack.