An inquiry into the murder of three girls in Southport has found ‘damning’ evidence that every state organisation shirked responsibility, with a disturbing lack of leadership, and ‘inappropriate merry-go-round’ of bodies passing the buck.
The 17-year-old man who ‘deliberately chose young girls to be the victims of his abhorrent violence’ had been on the state’s radar for nearly five years prior to the attack. A survivor, reported as Child C5, suffered two stab wounds and emergency surgery, she told the inquiry that she ‘wants change … so that no other child experience what she went through.’
The Chair of the inquiry, Sir Adrian Fulford, highlighted five areas of systemic failure including ‘fundamental’ failings by police and other agencies, allowing the killer, Axel Rudakubana, to fall ‘between their respective remits’. Sir Fulford found it ‘significantly troubling that no agency within our public services had the responsibility to monitor, investigate and take steps to neutralise a risk of this order of magnitude.’
Lancashire Constabulary was highlighted as feeling its ‘role was complete’ upon making a referral to Prevent, despite attending AR’s home on multiple occasions. This was aggravated by lack of action feedback following referrals, highlighting a ‘critical failure’ to share information between agencies. Notably, Rudakubana had previously admitted to police that he had, on 10 separate occasions, taken a knife into school whilst wanting to ‘kill somebody’ and being ‘pretty certain’ he would use the weapon. His intention was not reported to either his school or the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). The only report made to MASH changed Rudakubana’s statement to suggest that he ‘may’ use the knife ‘if things escalated’.
The inquiry found, further, that the 17 year old had previously searched school computers for violent acts of terrorism, yet his lack of internet monitoring at home ‘remarkably’ ‘seems to have gone unnoticed and unchallenged by all the agencies’. The lack of agency engagement marked ‘significant failing’ with Rudakubana viewing ‘degrading, violent, and misogynistic material’ which led him to ‘build an arsenal’.
A response from Chief Constable Rob Carden states that Merseyside Police accept the learnings set out, whilst noting that the ‘report does stress that the response as a whole was well managed… and the matter raised for learning did not impact (the response on the day).‘
Lancashire Police in their response to the Phase 1 report acknowledged that there are ‘systemic issues for policing nationally to consider, along with partner agencies.’
