Southport killer referral ‘would have continued if officer saw internet history’

A police sergeant has told an inquiry that she would not have closed the Southport killer’s first referral to the government’s anti-terror programme if she had seen his internet search history.

Axel Rudakubana killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and attempted to murder 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29 last year.

On Thursday, the Southport Inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall was shown the first referral to Prevent made by Acorns School in Ormskirk in December 2019.

The referral included details that he had brought a knife to his previous school on 10 occasions; that he was found searching school shootings in America during an ICT lesson; and that he questioned why he could colour in Call of Duty images during an art lesson but could not look at guns on the internet before requesting a “picture of a severed head”.

The inquiry heard previously that Rudakubana attacked a pupil at his former school with a hockey stick, causing actual bodily harm, and was found in possession of a knife.

Police sergeant Carmen Thompson of Counter Terrorism Policing North West, who at that time worked at Prevent and dealt with Rudakubana’s referral, said she found the contents “concerning” upon first reading the referral but “needed to get more information and speak to him” to make a full assessment.

The inquiry heard Ps Thompson eventually recommended closure of the Prevent referral, deciding that Rudakubana did not meet the threshold for a referral to Channel – the government programme which provides early stage support to people identified as being vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism.

She told Liverpool Town Hall that she had not been aware that the investigation into Rudakubana’s school browsing history found he had searched for images of degloving injuries and glue guns.

Asked if knowing that information at the time would have changed the outcome of the referral, she said: “I believe if I’d have seen that search history as you’ve just explained then I would have referred it to Channel.”

Before making the decision, the inquiry heard Ps Thompson attended a strategy meeting with other agencies in which it emerged that Rudakubana had said he was being bullied at school and had made a comment about the Manchester Arena Attack in 2017 being a “good battle”.

She told the inquiry: “My understanding was a lot of the comments that he said were very inappropriate in relation to all sorts of different things and I attributed that to the way he was presenting with his autism and the issues that he had, like not being able to make eye contact, not understanding emotions, all these sorts of traits that you could associate with autism.

“When I spoke to him and obviously I got sight of these comments and behaviours I put it into the context that it was to do with his autism and his belief that he was being bullied and his frustration with it.”

She added: “I accept that he was violent, he had been arrested for a violent offence, but for my assessment as to was he meeting a threshold for a referral to Channel… I didn’t view it as extreme violence in a Prevent way.”

She said she did not see that he was trying to promote a specific ideology, adding: “I didn’t see that obsession through the decision making and conversations and information that I had at that time.

“Of course it’s really difficult now with hindsight not to consider that because we all know what happened on that day and I’m finding that difficult to do.”

The sergeant appeared emotional at this stage and was later seen wiping the corner of her eyes as she continued giving evidence.

During a visit at his home, Rudakubana told Ps Thompson and another officer that he had seen a news article on Yahoo about school shootings and clicked on it as he was interested, denying actively searching for it, according to a document shown to the inquiry.

Ps Thompson told the hearing that she believed what he told her, and later accepted she should have been more sceptical of what he had said.

Acorns School made a second referral to Prevent in February 2021 over Rudakubana sharing a post about the pros and cons of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, before making a third referral in April of that year detailing the teenager reading about the London Bridge terror attacks on the internet and discussing the IRA, MI5 and the Israel and Palestine conflict with a teacher.

Ps Thompson was the case officer for both referrals which were closed after it was decided they did not change the earlier assessment.

“I did feel that there were other agencies involved to address his needs but I think there may have been a failure for information sharing,” she told the inquiry.

“Because I feel that nobody really had responsibility for him or felt that they had responsibility.”

Former detective sergeant Rachael Treharne, who was Ps Thompson’s supervisor at the time of the second and third referrals, admitted her level of supervision for the second referral “could have been better”.

She accepted that based on documents, it appears as though she had not seen the first referral before approving the closure of the second.

Of the third referral, she said: “I genuinely didn’t believe at the time that this was suitable to be referred on any more to Channel otherwise I would have done.”

She continued tearfully: “What I will say is that not long after this and certainly while I was still a supervisor at Prevent we would have referred under the banner of third referral.”

The inquiry continues on Monday.