“Yvette Cooper Orders Emergency Overhaul After Prevent Misses Deadly Warning Signs on Killer Axel Rudakubana”

The Southport killer, Axel Rudakubana, had been referred to the Prevent programme three times before committing a horrific crime that took the lives of three young girls and injured several others. Despite repeated warnings about his behavior and interests in extreme violence, counterterrorism officers failed to take appropriate action to stop him. This tragic case has exposed significant flaws in the Prevent system and raised questions about how potential threats are handled.

Axel’s first referral to Prevent happened in December 2019 after a teacher noticed he was looking up articles about school shootings in the United States and trying to discuss them during IT lessons. Shortly after, he attacked a fellow student with a hockey stick, breaking their wrist, and was found carrying a knife in his backpack. These were clear warning signs, but his case was closed, and no further action was taken.

In February 2021, he was referred again when former students reported that he was posting images of controversial figures like Colonel Gaddafi on Instagram. This behavior was seen as strange but still not enough for Prevent officers to escalate his case. The third referral came in April 2021 when teachers found him researching the London Bridge terror attack and the 2005 London bombings on his school computer. Despite this, officers concluded there were no signs of radicalization and believed his actions were simply a “curiosity about current events.”

Before these referrals, Axel had even contacted Childline, admitting he had brought knives to school several times and was having thoughts about harming others. This alarming confession should have triggered serious intervention, but it was largely ignored. Prevent officers decided his behavior was unrelated to any ideology, despite his violent tendencies and fixation on extremist content.

Axel eventually carried out a brutal attack, killing three young girls—Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King, and Alice da Silva Aguiar—and injuring eight other children, along with two adults. The court described his actions as “pure evil.” He was sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in prison, but his sentence was reduced because he was 17 years old at the time of the crime. This decision has angered many families and politicians who feel justice was not fully served.

An investigation into Prevent found that officers placed too much importance on whether someone had a specific ideology, failing to recognize dangerous fixations with violence and massacres. Axel had a long history of violent behavior, including carrying knives and attacking others, yet this was not enough for officers to escalate his case. Records showed he accessed material about Nazi Germany, genocides, al-Qaeda, and offensive cartoons about Islam. He even wrote to the National Crime Agency at the age of 16, asking if they knew about him, showing a disturbing desire for notoriety.

Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has ordered a full review of the Prevent programme, focusing on cases where individuals show an obsession with school shootings and extremist violence. She highlighted a serious problem where cases like Axel’s fell below the Prevent threshold, leaving other agencies to handle the situation, often without the resources or expertise needed. She also emphasized that interventions should not be delayed for people who are neurodiverse, such as Axel, who had been diagnosed with autism.

The review revealed that the system has been slow to adapt to growing threats from individuals who are not motivated by clear ideologies but are still fixated on extreme violence. This has become a worrying trend, with Prevent officials noting an increase in young people with these dangerous fixations. MI5 has also raised concerns about the influence of online extremism on vulnerable individuals, especially the younger generation.

This case is one of several where people known to Prevent went on to commit atrocities. It has sparked widespread calls for urgent reforms to ensure that similar failures do not happen again. The Home Office is now working on new pilot schemes and considering changes to the way referrals are handled, aiming to better address complex cases like Axel’s and prevent future tragedies.