The murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class would “almost certainly” have been prevented had the killer’s parents shared the full extent of their concerns with authorities during the final week before the massacre, a damning public inquiry has concluded.
Sir Adrian Fulford’s 763-page report into the 29 July 2024 Southport attack determined that Alphonse Rudakubana and Laetitia Muzayire—parents of murderer Axel Rudakubana—”morally ought to have” reported what they knew about their son’s deteriorating mental state despite facing “significant challenges” managing him.
“If the full extent of AR’s family’s concerns had been shared with authorities in late July 2024—including on the day of the attack—it is almost certain this tragedy would have been prevented,” the inquiry chairman stated, referring to the 19-year-old killer by his initials throughout the two-volume report.
The devastating conclusion arrives as families of Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Bebe King, 6, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, continue grieving the loss of their daughters who were killed alongside eight other children and two adults who were seriously injured during the workshop massacre.
Sir Adrian identified a “fundamental failure” across multiple agencies to take ownership of the escalating risk Rudakubana posed, with his case passed between organisations in what the inquiry described as an “inappropriate merry-go-round” that “lies at the heart” of how he remained free to mount the attack.
“The killer’s trajectory towards grave violence was signposted repeatedly and unambiguously, but the systems and agencies responsible for safeguarding the public did not act with the cohesion, urgency or clarity required,” Sir Adrian concluded.
The report highlighted December 2019 as a critical “watershed event” when Rudakubana brought a knife to his former school and attacked a boy with a hockey stick—an incident that should have prompted all agencies concluding he posed “high risk of harm.”
A subsequent 2022 incident involving Rudakubana carrying a knife on a bus represented another missed opportunity, with Sir Adrian determining that had this been properly evaluated against his risk history, he would have been arrested, leading to discovery of an al Qaeda manual and ricin seeds in his possession.
“If appropriate arrangements and reasonable resources had been in place to address the risk that AR posed to others from December 2019 onwards, it is highly likely that the tragedy of 29 July would not have occurred,” the inquiry found.
Rudakubana—who was 17 at the time of the attack—pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court in January 2025 to three murders alongside attempting to murder eight other children, instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
Judge Mr Justice Goose sentenced him to 13 life terms with a minimum 52-year tariff, stating it was “highly likely” he would never be released whilst noting he would have received a whole-life order had he been 18 during the attack.
The judge determined Rudakubana would have killed all 26 children present “if he’d been able to,” with the murders causing “shock and revulsion” to the nation. The killer will be 70 before any parole board consideration.
