Head of Southport attacker’s former school tells inquiry of ‘sense of dread’

The head teacher of the Southport attacker’s former school has told a public inquiry she had a “visceral sense of dread” that he would do something.

Joanne Hodson, head of The Acorns School in Ormskirk, which Axel Rudakubana attended after he was excluded from the Range High School, said she felt like he was “building up to something”.

She said: “I felt like something was going to happen and there was a level of agitation with direct challenges to staff, the way he was with other pupils. I felt like every day it was building and building and building.”

Sitting at Liverpool Town Hall on Thursday, the inquiry heard Rudakubana, referred to during the inquiry as AR, was permanently excluded from the Range, in Formby, after admitting taking knives in to school in October 2019.

He returned to the school in December that year when he assaulted another student with a hockey stick and was found to have a knife in his bag.

Ms Hodson, who was acting head teacher when Rudakubana was at the pupil referral unit, said: “I was aware he had taken knives in to school and I was worried that he was going to bring something to our school and in the end he didn’t, he went to the Range and did it, but that is what I feared was going to happen to our school.”

Rudakubana, then aged 17, 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 in Southport on July 29 last year.

Ms Hodson described a “memorable” first meeting with the teenager at his admissions meeting for the Acorns, when she asked him why he had taken a knife in to his former school.

She said: “He looked me in the eyes and said ‘to use it’. This is the only time in my career that a pupil has said this to me or behaved in a manner so devoid of any remorse.

“What also surprised me was that AR’s parents did not flinch at this comment.”

She said the parents believed he had taken the knife in to school as a response to being bullied.

She told the inquiry: “He saw himself and his parents saw him as the victim of the incident rather than the perpetrator.”

She said Rudakubana was the “most unusual” pupil she had experienced during her career.

In a statement, she said: “There was a sinister undertone and it was difficult to build rapport. He had no respect for authority and generally a lack of respect of other pupils and staff.

“He was insistent that his views alone were correct and everyone else was wrong. There was never any sense of remorse or accountability for his actions.”

She told the inquiry: “His interactions with the other pupils were very challenging and I was trying to work out exactly what was going on and trying to get help from other agencies to explain what we were dealing with really and get some help.”

The inquiry heard that in his education, health and care plan it was noted there were concerns that Rudakubana said or did things which had been described as “sinister”, but that word was crossed out.

Ms Hodson said the word was changed to “inappropriate” after professional views were submitted by the child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS).

She said: “I was challenged quite heavily and told no child should ever be described as sinister and as a professional I should not be using those words.

“The other issue was I was told my attitude towards the risk around him was because I perceived him to be a black boy with a knife.”

Ms Hodson said his parents were of the view he was a “good boy” who never did anything wrong and that “any issues were someone else’s fault”.

But, Ms Hodson said from January 2021 she had concerns Rudakubana’s father may have been fearful of him and had lost control of his son.

She said school staff, who made three referrals about him to the Government’s anti-terror programme Prevent, were concerned about him attacking his peers.

In her statement, she said: “We were concerned that he was someone capable of being radicalised and that he was vulnerable.

“He was so socially isolated that I could not conceive of the idea that he might attack a group of strangers, let alone young children.

“The tragic events are so far removed from what I would have associated AR with in terms of risk.”

Ms Hodson said that in January 2022, when Rudakubana made comments thought to be anti-semitic in school, teachers did not make another referral to Prevent.

She said they felt “let down” after their third referral caused issues in the school’s relationship with Rudakubana and his father Alphonse but was not acted on by Prevent.

In her statement to the inquiry, she said: “On reflection, whilst I regret not submitting further Prevent referrals in 2022, I think by this point Acorns had lost faith that anything would be done.”

The inquiry was adjourned until Monday.