Trending – Southport killer pleads guilty

The Southport killer Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism charges yesterday. He had been charged with the murder of three little girls who were attending a dance class in Southport last year as well as terrorism charges including making ricin.

Since his guilty plea, the media has been able to report that he planned to commit the UK’s first school massacre just a week before he murdered the children. Since his guilty plea, it has also been revealed that he was referred to a counter-extremism scheme three times.

The prime minister has announced a public inquiry to help understand how this happened, saying the victims in the case had been failed by the state.

Basic facts

Axel Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism charges
Last year he stabbed to death six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar
Nine other children and two adults were injured in the attack
The murders led to mass violence fuelled by misinformation online
Rudakubana was born in the UK and was not an illegal migrant
On the day of the murder, police said they were not treating it as terror-related
But he was later charged with terror charges including making ricin and having an al-Qaeda training manual
He was referred on three occasions to the Prevent scheme due to his interest in violence
He was rejected from the program due to them not finding any evidence of terrorist ideology
He is due to be sentenced on Thursday with a life sentence expected
There is still no understanding of what his motive was

The reaction

The right-leaning media lead with the Southport killer. The Sun says the prime minister will address the nation today after ordering a public inquiry into the attack. The paper says Sir Keir has admitted the state “failed to protect” the three young girls killed by Axel Rudakubana last summer. The Daily Mirror says it can now be reported that he had been reported to the government’s Prevent counter-extremism scheme at least three times. He also pleaded to eight counts of attempted murder in relation to the eight other kids. The Telegraph says Robert Jenrick is among those asking why the public were initially told the attack was not being treated as terror-related. He calls on the prime minister to “be open about what he knew” about the nature of the attack and when.