Southport families support further investigation into attacker’s parents

Families of the Southport attack victims have expressed their support for a re-examination of the actions of the killer’s parents, as police confirmed they were assessing evidence given to the public inquiry.

Alphonse Rudakubana and Laetitia Muzayire, whose son Axel Rudakubana, 19,  murdered three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, gave evidence to the Southport Inquiry last week.

Both parents apologised to the bereaved families during the hearings at Liverpool Town Hall.

Rudakubana killed Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, on July 29 last year and attempted to murder 10 others.

A Merseyside Police spokeswoman said: “We will obtain full transcripts from the inquiry and assess whether new information was provided that wasn’t known.”

She said a file had not been submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before because evidence did not “pass the police threshold”, meaning there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of a conviction for any offence.

Solicitor Chris Walker, of Bond Turner, representing the families of Elsie, Bebe and Alice said: “On behalf of the three bereaved families, we wish to express our full support for any reopening or re-examination of the evidence in relation to the conduct of AR’s parents.

“Any further inquiry into the behaviour in question is unequivocally supported by all of our clients.

“We are confident that a criminal investigation will conclude that an offence has been committed.”

The Attorney General provided an undertaking to the inquiry, meaning evidence given can not be used in any investigation or prosecution of the witness who gave it, either generally or for specific offences.

In her evidence, Ms Muzayire told the inquiry: “There are many things that Alphonse and I wish we had done differently, anything that might have prevented the horrific event of July 29 2024.

“(For) our failure, we are profoundly sorry. We pray every day for the children and their families, and for God’s comfort to surround them.”

The inquiry heard a week before the murders Mr Rudakubana had stopped his son from getting into a taxi because he believed he was going to carry out an attack at his former school.

In a message to his wife later that day, he said: “Our child needs to be protected. Imagine how those things have faded away and he could have been killed or imprisoned for good/for life.”

Mr Rudakubana accepted that by this time he was aware that his son had access to a “small arsenal of weapons” in the home, including a bow and arrow and a knife.

He said he regretted not calling the police after accepting delivery of a machete his son had ordered in June 2023.

Following their evidence, bereaved families called for the parents to be held to account for their actions.

Elsie’s parents Jenni and David Stancombe said: “Parents should be culpable when they knowingly allow such evil to exist unchecked under their own roof, when they know what their child is capable of and choose to do nothing.”