UK investigation reveals ‘devastating’ missed opportunity before dance class stabbing: NPR

LONDON – The 2024 mass murder of a British teenager who fatally stabbed three girls and seriously injured 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in 2024 “could and should have been prevented” if his parents and state agencies had taken action given his well-known attitude towards increased violence, according to a report released on Monday.

Adrian Fulford, a retired judge who led the nine-week investigation, issued a 763-page report that listed the times parents or authorities intervened in Axel Rudakubana’s life to ultimately prevent him from carrying out the murders, which he said were unprecedented in Britain because of their “extreme and very specific depravity”.

Fulford said, “One of the most significant findings from this extensive investigation is the enormous number of missed opportunities over many years to make meaningful interventions, which directly contributed to the failure to prevent this disaster.” “The results were devastating.”

Rudacubana, who was 17 when he carried out the attack in northwestern England, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 52 years for killing Alice da Silva Aguirre, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Babe King, 6, and wounding eight children and two adults.

The attack in the town of Southport caused days of chaos after far-right activists seized on false reports that the attacker was a Muslim migrant who had recently arrived in the UK. Rudakubana was born in Wales to Rwandan Christian parents.

The report made 67 recommendations to prevent future atrocities, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised changes to fix “the systemic failings that led to this horrific incident.”

“Today’s report is truly sad and deeply troubling,” Starmer said. “Although nothing will bring these three little girls back, I am determined to make the fundamental changes needed to keep the public safe.”

Police, social workers and teachers were well aware of Rudakubana’s problems.

He was convicted in 2019 of attacking another child at school with a hockey stick at the age of 13 and was placed under the supervision of a local service for young offenders. He was seconded to the government’s counter-extremism programme, Prevent, three times between 2019 and 2021 to express interest in school shootings, the 2017 London Bridge attacks, the Irish Republican Army and the Middle East. Each time, the case was closed because he was not considered susceptible to becoming a terrorist.

During the same period, local police were called to his home five times over unspecified concerns about his behaviour. He was given mental health and educational support, but later appeared to have stopped connecting with social workers. He was expelled after taking a knife to school and rarely attended school after that.

“Too often, AR’s ‘case’ was passed from one public sector agency to another in an unfair round of referrals, assessments, case-closures and ‘hand-offs’,” said Fulford, who used only the killer’s initials.

Fulford highlighted an incident in March 2022 when Rudakubana was caught with a knife on a bus and told police he wanted to stab someone and admitted to trying to make poison.

Fulford said, overall, they should have led to an arrest that would have potentially led to a search of his home that would have revealed he had purchased seeds to make the organic toxin ricin and downloaded terrorist material onto his computer.

Rudakubana was not arrested and released to his parents, who were afraid of him and repeatedly failed to report the various knives he purchased, his disturbing behavior, and the threats he made.

While Fulford outlined several failures by Rudakubana’s parents that could have prevented the tragedy, he said they should not be vilified for what has become a challenging situation.

Fulford said, “His life at home must have been little less than a nightmare; AR had, in his father’s words, turned into a ‘monster’.”

Following the Southport attack, police searched Rudakubana’s home and recovered ricin and a downloaded document, described as an al-Qaeda training manual, hidden under his bed.

Police concluded that his crimes should not be classified as terrorism, as there was no apparent political or religious reason or motivation.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said a new law would be introduced to deal with violent plots that would not be considered terrorism.

“Unlike terrorist attacks, if you are planning an attack without any underlying ideology, there is no crime on the statute book,” Mahmood said.