The Southport murders and maimings did not need to happen. Three little girls, Elsie, Alice and Bebe, should still be alive.  That is the conclusion of the first phase of the Southport Inquiry, which was published today. Who then, is to blame? Axel Rudakubana himself, of course, but reading through the report it is clear that there were countless opportunities to prevent this horror, and many people who failed in their duties.

His family are clearly to blame, although the inquiry warns against ‘demonising’ them. They ‘had some knowledge of his possession of weapons and knew of the aborted attack’ which Axel planned the week before Southport. The killer’s father, Alphonse, seems particularly difficult. Despite Axel’s violence in schools, his father believed he should return to mainstream schooling. When Axel was becoming increasingly violent at school, his father ‘took his son’s side’ on every occasion, especially when the boy claimed he was being bullied. Even the horrific killings of July 2024 do not seem to have changed Alphonse’s opinion very much – during his evidence at the inquiry he also ‘resorted to his earlier criticisms of various of the agencies which had been involved’ with his son. He also claimed in his evidence that ‘the entirety’ of Rudakubana’s ‘deteriorating behaviour’ was the fault of his school.

So the family environment was very much part of the problem. But Rudakubana also had a great deal of contact with many education, mental health, social work and justice professionals who became aware of the boy and the risk he posed. Again and again they failed.

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In October 2019 the killer contacted Childline, telling them that he wanted to kill another pupil at the Range High School, where he was a pupil at the time. Rudakubana told........

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