The Southport killer, Axel Rudakubana, bought a cache of deadly weapons, including equipment to make the lethal poison ricin, on Amazon at least two years before he murdered three young girls last summer, it can be revealed.
The “extremely violent” 18-year-old bought items to make ricin in 2022, three years after he came to the attention of the anti-radicalisation programme Prevent, the police and other authorities.
Rudakubana used security software to hide his identity when he bought knives from Amazon in the days before his attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance club in Southport, Merseyside, on 29 July.
It can also be revealed that six minutes before he left his home that day, he searched for a video of the Sydney church stabbing last year in which a bishop was attacked while livestreaming a sermon.
Keir Starmer on Tuesday said the failure of the authorities to stop Rudakubana “frankly leaps off the page” as he pledged to “leave no stone unturned” to make changes recommended by a new public inquiry into the atrocity.
It came after the Guardian revealed how Rudakubana had been referred three times to Prevent – in 2019 and twice in 2021 – including once owing to a concern about his potential interest in the killing of children in a school massacre, it is understood.
He was also on the radar of Lancashire constabulary, his local police force, who had several interactions with him between October 2019 and May 2022 – including five calls from his family relating to concerns about his behaviour.
He was then referred to local safeguarding officials, who are said to have supported Rudakubana’s family.
The announcement of a public inquiry came after Rudakubana pleaded guilty to murdering Bebe King, six, Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and trying to kill eight other children and two adults in the worst attack on children in recent UK history.
The 26 young girls, aged between six and 11, were gathered around a table making bracelets and singing Taylor Swift songs when Rudakubana appeared in the doorway holding a 20cm kitchen knife, it can now be disclosed.
Screams could be heard within 30 seconds of Rudakubana entering the building at 11.45am, 15 minutes before parents were due to collect their children.
Without saying a word, the teenager grabbed the girl closest to him and stabbed her, before working his way around the tiny room “systematically” stabbing as many children as he could, a senior police officer said.
They described the attack as “no random act but a planned and premeditated attempt to commit mass murder”.
The injuries suffered by Elsie and Bebe were so severe they had no chance of surviving, police said. Alice managed to run outside after being attacked but died in hospital the following morning.
Rudakubana chased his young victims as they fled, stabbing them in the back as they tried to get away. One of the children had managed to flee the building before he pulled her back in and continued his attack.
When police arrived, Rudakubana was standing over the body of one of his victims holding a large blooded knife, which he dropped when ordered to by officers.
Detectives found a cache of weapons inside his home, including a machete, knives, and a set of arrows, as well as items for making ricin.
He had ordered many of the weapons on Amazon using security software to hide his identity, police said, and took possession of two of the knives on 13 July – two weeks before the Southport attack. One is still available on Amazon costing only £1.70.
Several officials said Rudakubana’s internet history showed “an obsession with extreme violence” including the Rwanda genocide.
His father, Alphonse, who moved to Britain in 2002, is thought to have fought with the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), an armed force that battled the Hutu-dominated regime in Rwanda and eventually brought an end to the mass ethnic killings of 1994.
On two Lenovo tablet computers police found material relating to Nazi Germany, Chechnya, “clan cleansing” in Somalia, the Mau Mau war and a study on the “punishments dealt to slave rebels” in the 18th century. They also found images of conflicts in Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere.
He had downloaded an academic study on Al-Qaida, which is banned under terror laws, as long ago as 2021, which police believe he may have used to make the ricin.
In his bedroom, officers found safety goggles, a pestle and mortar, funnels and a flask, which contained traces of ricin residue. The items had been bought from Amazon in 2022 – two years before the Southport attack.
Even as little as 0.5mg can be fatal to adults but police have found no evidence he used the poison.
Rudakubana came to the attention of a range of services in 2019, about the time he turned 13, after experiencing “increasing anxiety and social isolation”, local safeguarding officials said on Monday night.
He was excluded from Range high school in October that year after taking a knife into school. Two months later, he returned to the school and attacked a child with a hockey stick.
A week before the Southport attack, Rudakubana’s father stopped him from taking a taxi to Range high school, where he is believed to have been planning to stab pupils.
The teenager had used a fake name, Simon, to book the taxi at 12.20pm on 22 July. Detectives believe it is no coincidence that the school was due to break up for the summer holidays 10 minutes later.
Rudakubana was stopped from going to the school when his father pleaded with him not to go. After an argument witnessed by neighbours, the teenager got out of the car and went inside his home.
He would re-emerge seven days later, however, and that time he was not stopped, with tragic consequences.
