UK murder of 3 girls by teenager should have been prevented, says inquiry

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.Nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and six-year-old Bebe King were killed in a knife attack in Britain in 2024. Photo: Merseyside Police via AFPInquiry 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.“This failure lies at the heart of why (Rudakubana) ‌was able to mount the attack, despite so many warning signs of ⁠his capacity for ⁠fatal violence,” he added.Rudakubana was referred to Prevent three times, firstly in December 2019 after taking ‌a knife to school and searching online for school shootings, but no further action was taken.Rudakubana ‌attended his ‌previous school later that month with a hockey stick and a ‌knife, which Fulford described as “a watershed event”.Floral tributes lie near the scene where three young girls were stabbed to death in Southport, Britain, in 2024. Ten other people were injured. Photo: Reuters“If appropriate arrangements and reasonable ⁠resources had been in place to address the risk that (Rudakubana) posed to others from ⁠December 2019 onwards, it is highly likely that the tragedy … would not have occurred,” Fulford said.He also said Rudakubana’s parents “bear significant responsibility” for ‌failing to alert ‌the authorities to the risk their son posed.Further Reading