Southport

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...