Former victims’ commissioner Vera Baird says disciplinary action is essential to ensure people are held accountable• UK politics live – latest updatesFamilies in Southport cannot be sure that officials who made “catastrophic” errors before the murder of three girls are not still making the same mistakes, a former victims’ commissioner has said.Vera Baird KC said all those who failed to properly monitor the killer, Axel Rudakubana, should be held “personally accountable” and that authorities must not “shrug it off” with an apology. Continue reading...
Report finds there were dozens of warning signs about Axel Rudakubana as far back as 2019 and identifies five main failures of those involvedSouthport attack blamed on ‘catastrophic’ failures by agencies and killer’s ‘irresponsible’ parentsIt took seconds for Axel Rudakubana to carry out one of the most barbaric attacks on children in modern British history.Yet by the time he entered that joy-filled holiday club, where young girls sat making Taylor Swift bracelets, his deadly intentions had been known for years. Continue reading...
Official report says system ‘completely failed’ because some form of violence by Axel Rudakubana had been ‘unambiguously signposted over many years’Southport attack inquiry report – latest updatesAxel Rudakubana was able to carry out the Southport atrocity because of “catastrophic” failures by multiple agencies and the “irresponsible and harmful” role of his parents, a damning inquiry has found.Sir Adrian Fulford condemned the “inappropriate merry-go-round” of state bodies passing the buck and their “frankly depressing” refusal to accept responsibility, saying: “This culture has to end.” Continue reading...
Inquiry heard evidence about state involvement with Axel Rudakubana, who killed three young girls at a dance workshop in summer 2024Chairman Adrian Fulford, who will publish his report at midday, said the obligation was to provide answers to victims and their families.Concluding the hearings in November, he said:Our principal responsibility lies to them, to provide the best possible explanation as to why and how this terrible event occurred, and to be brave about suggesting the changes that ought to be made to prevent, if we can, a repetition.Sitting through the extensive list of failings exposed during the first phase of the inquiry provoked an understandably complex mix of emotions for our clients, who battle the daily consequences of survivors’ guilt.We hope the report will expose every entity that failed to act in time to prevent this catastrophic attack, and any agencies that are found to be at fault are committed to not just learning lessons but demonstrating, publicly, that they are committed to taking every step to prevent such an atrocity from happening again.There is no regulatory mechanism to ensure that recommendations are properly considered and acted upon at the end of an inquiry, which is why we are strongly urging the chair to implement a process to monitor the progress of all recommendations and provide evidence to support them, as happened at the Manchester Arena Inquiry.Since that harrowing day, our clients’ thoughts have remained with the bereaved and will remain so today. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Guardian analysis suggests young people who pose ‘catastrophic’ threat still slipping through systemMinisters are “failing to learn the lessons” from the Southport attack and allowing violence-obsessed teenagers to remain a “catastrophic” threat to society, lawyers for victims of the atrocity have said ahead of the findings of an official inquiry.A report on the July 2024 attack by the judge Sir Adrian Fulford, to be released on Monday, is expected to strongly criticise failings by a series of agencies, including the counter-terrorism programme Prevent. Continue reading...
