‘Cowardly’ Southport killer targeted women and girls, inquiry hears

Southport child-killer Axel Rudakubana’s sadistic attack specifically targeted women and girls, a public inquiry heard.

The hearing, at Liverpool Town Hall, was shown the pink-coloured advert for the Taylor Swift themed yoga and dance class, “bound to appeal more to girls than boys”.

The 17-year-old, armed with a kitchen knife, entered the class as girls made friendship bracelets, and began stabbing children, at about midday on July 29 last year.

He murdered Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in the attack in The Hart Space on a small business park in the seaside town.

He also attempted to murder eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.

Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquiry, in an opening statement, said apart from Mr Hayes, it was a “notable feature” all the other victims were female.

Mr Moss said Rudakubana, who he referred to as “AR”, would have known from the advert that the event was for young girls and the organisers were two women.

Mr Moss said: “So this brings into play the fact that AR was, it appears, specifically targeting women and girls.

“Of course, when you then add in their ages and the targeting of an event where AR may have thought the girls’ parents would not be present, it all means in combination that the attack was so manifestly and extremely cowardly.”

The killer was jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years in January at Liverpool Crown Court, after admitting the “sadistic” murders and attempted murders.

The court heard Rudakubana did not have any particular terrorist cause and his motivation was mass murder as an end in itself.

It also emerged he had been repeatedly referred to Prevent, the police and government anti-terror programme, he had attacked a school pupil with a hockey stick, used school computers to look up the London Bridge terror outrage, and carried a knife on a bus and into class, before he carried out the Southport murders.

His possession of an al Qaida manual and his attempts to make the poison ricin was also disclosed in court.

But the inquiry on Tuesday heard new details about his disturbing online activity and purchase of weapons.

Mr Moss, in his opening address to the inquiry, said examining Rudakubana’s internet usage would help understand his motivation.

He said though no religious or other terrorist ideology has been identified, the families of the victims want to know “how that conclusion was reached”.

Rudakubana deleted his internet browsing history on some devices on the day of the attack, but used one device to search on X, formerly Twitter, for the “Mar Mari Emmanuel stabbing” – the knife attack on a bishop in Australia.

He searched for the video just minutes before taking a taxi and 40 minutes later launched his attack.

Mr Moss said the timing of this was “sobering and concerning”.

Police also found on Rudakubana’s devices a photo of so-called Islamic State terrorist Mohammed Emwazi, known as “Jihadi John”, an image of a wolf dressed in a suit with the caption “Just be a lone wolf bro”, and an image of Adolf Hitler.

Mr Moss said “very disturbing” images and screenshots from his devices contained images of religious insensitivity, violence, graphic injuries, slavery including of women, weapons, warfare, mistreatment of women and Nazi Germany.

There were passages from the Koran but also a significant amount of anti-Islamic and antisemitic material.

Earlier, Sir Adrian Fulford, chairman of the inquiry, promised to do everything “humanly possible” to answer the questions of bereaved families and victims.

Mr Moss said the inquiry would establish a “definitive account” of the attack, the background and the killer’s involvement with state agencies, including police, schools and social services.

In the hours after the stabbing, information spread online which claimed the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK on a small boat.

Unrest broke out across parts of the UK. Mosques and hotels used for asylum seekers were among the locations targeted and more than 1,000 arrests were made.

The inquiry was adjourned until Wednesday, when opening statements from core participants, including the families of the girls killed and injured, will be heard.