UK murder of 3 girls by teenager should have been prevented, says inquiry
Agencies did not fully ‘take ownership of the risk’ while teenage killer’s parents bore ‘significant responsibility’ too
The murders of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event in Britain in 2024 should have been prevented, but there was a “fundamental failure” by state bodies to recognise the risk the killer posed, a public inquiry concluded on Monday.
Teenager Axel Rudakubana launched the frenzied knife attack at the summer holiday event in Southport, northern England, on July 29, 2024, in what Prime Minister Keir Starmer called “a devastating moment” in British history.
Rudakubana, then 17, killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and wounded another 10 in an attack which was followed by days of nationwide rioting.
He was jailed for at least 52 years after he admitted the killings shortly before his trial last year.
Inquiry chair Adrian Fulford said there was a failure by agencies – including the police, the counter-radicalisation scheme Prevent and social services – to “take ownership of the risk” Rudakubana posed.