Taxi driver regrets not calling police sooner after Southport killings, inquiry hears

Gary Poland, a taxi driver, testified via video link to the Southport Inquiry in Liverpool Town Hall that he regrets not calling the police sooner after dropping off the suspect at the Hart Space dance class where three children were killed. He told the hearing that he drove away in a panic and did not report the attack for about 50 minutes.

The killings occurred at Hart Space, where Alice Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, were killed, and eight other girls and two adults were injured. The inquiry noted the scale of the attack and the toll on the dancing class participants and their families.

Poland said he heard loud bangs moments after dropping off the attacker, later identified as Axel Rudakubana, which he believed to be gunshots. He described seeing dashcam images of a massed huddle of children stumble and run in a panicked hurry as they fled the venue. The driver stated that he did not know the children had been injured at the time.

"I should have called the police earlier. In hindsight I wish I had done and it's something I think about every day," Poland said. "I did what I did because of fear, shock and panic. These are human emotions which I could not control."

Counsel to the inquiry, Nicholas Moss KC, said in a statement to police that dashcam footage showed the girls running and Poland looking in his rear-view mirror. Moss asked whether it was fair to say that the purpose of a later call to a friend was to describe what just happened rather than to report the attack. Poland replied that he believed the call was more about explaining what he had witnessed, which he later characterized as unfair.

Poland also testified that the attacker refused to pay the taxi fare, and after dropping him off he proceeded to Hart Street, where the bangs occurred. When asked if he would have stopped on Hart Street to call the police, Poland said, "Yeah." He described waking in the night with the attacker’s face in his head and said he cannot sleep because of what he witnessed.

Moss noted a transcript of a phone call Poland made to a friend in which he discussed the attacker’s gun belief, but the transcript did not show Poland expressing any concern for the girls. Poland said the delay in contacting authorities was a result of fear and shock and that he did not fully understand the consequences of the events at the time.

The inquiry, which has been examining the events surrounding the Southport attack and the response by those involved, continues to hear testimony and assess timelines, decisions, and potential lessons to be learned for future emergency responses.