Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has vowed to learn from the 'appalling tragedy' of the Southport attack, where three young girls were murdered by a teenage knifeman. An inquiry was launched on Monday into the case, following calls for answers on how the perpetrator, Axel Rudakubana, managed to evade intervention despite multiple contacts with state agencies. The Prime Minister acknowledged failures in the case, saying they 'leap off the page' and that no institution would be shielded from scrutiny.
Sir Keir Starmer has said the failure of state institutions in the case of child-killer Axel Rudakubana “frankly leaps off the page”. The 18-year-old, from Banks in Lancashire, pleaded guilty on Monday (January 20) to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport , Merseyside, in July.
Despite contact with state agencies such as Prevent, aimed at countering terrorism, authorities failed to stop the attack which claimed the lives of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced an inquiry into the case on Monday evening, saying the country needs “independent answers” on Prevent and other agencies’ contact with the “extremely violent” Rudakubana and “how he came to be so dangerous”. Addressing the nation on Tuesday morning (January 21), the Prime Minister said said the tragedy of the Southport killings “must be a line in the sand for Britain”. He said: “No words come anywhere close to expressing the brutality and horror in this case. Every parent in Britain will have had the same thought. It could have been anywhere, it could have been our children, but it was Southport. It was Bebe, six years old. Elsie, seven. Alice, nine. “Back in August, I said there will be a time for questions, but that first, justice had to be done, and that, above all, we must not interfere with the work of the police, the prosecutors and the delivery of that justice. Well, yesterday, thankfully, a measure of justice was done, but it won’t bring those girls back to their families, and it won’t remove the trauma from the lives of those who were injured, their lives will never be the same. “So before I turn to the questions that must now be answered for the families and the nation, I first want to recognise their unimaginable grief, because I know the whole country grieves for them. The tragedy of the Southport killings must be a line in the sand for Britain.” The PM also said failures in the case “leap off the page”. He said: “We must make sure the names of those three young girls are not associated with the vile perpetrator but instead with a fundamental change in how Britain protects its citizens and its children. “In pursuit of that, we must, of course, ask and answer difficult questions, questions that should be far-reaching, unburdened by cultural or institutional sensitivities and driven only by the pursuit of justice. That is what we owe the families. “The responsibility for this barbaric act lies, as it always does, with the vile individual who carried it out. But that is no comfort, and more importantly, it is no excuse. “And so as part of the inquiry launched by the Home Secretary yesterday, I will not let any institution of the state deflect from their failure, failure, which in this case, frankly leaps off the page. “For example, the perpetrator was referred to the Prevent programme on three separate occasions – in 2019 once and in 2021 twice. Yet on each of these occasions, a judgment was made that he did not meet the threshold for intervention, a judgment that was clearly wrong and which failed those families. And I acknowledge that here today.”
SOUTHPORT KILLINGS PREVENT INQUIRY RISHI SUNAK AXEL RUDAKUBANA STATE AGENCIES FAILURE JUSTICE
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