Police take fresh look at Southport killer’s parents

Merseyside Police have confirmed that their detectives will examine written transcripts following oral evidence given by Alphonse Rudakubana and Laetitia Muzaire last week.

The Southport inquiry heard that their son, Axel Rudakubana, had engaged in disturbing and violent behavior for several years before killing three children and injuring eight others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop on July 29 last year.

Police had previously considered charges against his parents, but in June said the evidence was insufficient to refer them to the Crown Prosecution Service.

A Merseyside Police spokesperson said the force would now "assess whether any new information was provided to the investigation that was not previously known."

During the hearing, Alphonse Rudakubana admitted that he had found a package containing a knife that his son had ordered online in June 2023 and hidden it on top of a wardrobe – but he did not inform any agency, including mental health teams, the police, or social services.

He told the inquiry: "I regret that I didn't tell the police because, if I did, what happened on the 29th wouldn't have happened.

"They would have come and checked everything in his room."

He also said that despite teachers' warnings that Rudakubana was viewing bloody and violent images on the internet, he was too afraid to restrict his teenage son's access to the internet, as it could provoke a violent reaction.

"I had no authority as a father, I had no power at all left to stop him from accessing anything he wanted online," he said.

Mr. Rudakubana also did not disclose that his son had tried to leave home by taxi on July 22, 2024, a week before the attack, to go to Range High School in Formby, from where he had been expelled in 2019.

He admitted that he prevented his son from going to school because he feared he would attack the school, and that he believed he had a knife, although he had not seen one.