A 17-year-old boy who meticulously planned a mass knife attack modelled on the Southport murders — including conducting reconnaissance in the town and purchasing a green hoodie similar to the one worn by killer Axel Rudakubana — has been handed a three-year youth rehabilitation order after pleading guilty to terror offences.
Liverpool Crown Court heard the teenager, who was 16 at the time, had idolised Rudakubana to a disturbing degree, referring to himself as an “Axelcel” and writing notes describing the triple killer as “the black version of me” and “the one person I look up to.” He downloaded the same al-Qaeda training manual used by Rudakubana and also possessed the Improvised Munitions Handbook, the Anarchist Cookbook 2000 and a recipe for producing the deadly poison ricin. He had also researched school shootings and misogynist incel ideology and considered attacking his former school after dropping out — again mirroring Rudakubana’s background.
On 13 May last year, the boy travelled 15 miles from his home in Kirkby to Southport, where he photographed the town as part of a reconnaissance mission. He told a contact on TikTok: “77 days until Axel 2.” His focus was on Taylor Swift-themed events scheduled for 29 July — the first anniversary of Rudakubana’s attack in which Bebe King, six, Elsie Stancombe, seven, and Alice Aguiar, nine, were murdered.
His plans only unravelled when he called 999 himself on 6 August last year from the bathroom of his grandparents’ home while his mother and baby sister were downstairs. Officers attended the address and recovered a bag of knives he had taken from his grandparents’ kitchen. A search of his devices uncovered poetry written “in honour of Rudakubana”, along with detailed notes referencing incels and what he termed “Axelcels.”
He was not charged with the more serious offence of preparing a terrorist act. Prosecutor Adam Birkby told the court that while the boy had expressed ideations toward the type of incident Southport experienced, there was no specific identifiable ideology underpinning his plans, and that given his age and personal circumstances it was not considered in the public interest to pursue the more serious charge. Targeting schoolchildren and misogynistic attacks are not classified as ideological offences by prosecutors.
The court heard the teenager, like Rudakubana, is believed to have autism and was under the care of child and adolescent mental health services at the time of the offending. He had also been referred to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme on two separate occasions.
Rudakubana, whose crimes the boy sought to replicate, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years following his guilty pleas to three counts of murder and ten of attempted murder. He had himself been flagged to Prevent three times before carrying out his attack, with no further action taken on any occasion.
