Axel Rudakubana: a compelling case for the death penalty

I had expressed a similar sentiment the night before, only with a little more feeling. The smiling, angelic innocence of Bebe, Elsie and Alice scorched into my mind, having followed the sentencing all day. On my X feed I expressed how I was feeling, without fear or filter, I suppose: ‘I’ve searched myself today. I really have. But, I’d have no issue today whatsoever with sentencing Axel Rudakubana to death. By whatever means.’ As ever with X, an increasingly broken and unpleasant place to spend time, many people disagreed with me. Many more, though, did not.

Now; this represents a shift in thinking for me. For as long as I can recall, I have been against capital punishment. I have always felt that right-minded, compassionate, civilised societies should not, even for a moment and no matter what, contemplate taking the life of another human being. Chief among my reasons, though not alone, has always been the margin for error. Our legal system is amongst the best in the world, yet it is not immune to mistakes nor manipulation.

However … and I wonder if you agree or disagree, but I have felt an uneasy swell of dissatisfaction with standards for some time. In my opinion, there has been an insidious creep in disrespect for one another, but in particular for authority; a deterioration in manners; a behavioural decline. Bear with me, here, as I meander seemingly off topic, but I am about to juxtapose a couple of things that I believe are important to the remainder of this newsletter:

1. The disappearance of local, visible law enforcement: every village, let alone every town, once had a beat bobby who knew everyone - he/she would keep local headquarters informed of individuals embarking upon the wrong path in life, and monitor continuously and closely, sometimes dishing out the odd clip around the ear. Our villages had a police station, which was unmistakably a police station. Police livery, symbols, logos - emblems that kept front and centre of all our minds what lies in wait for us should we stray from the straight and narrow. Each town had a magistrates’ court, and you could see that, too. Scales of justice and the Royal Coat of Arms festooned proudly, and dare I say ominously, to the outside walls of imposing buildings, warning you of what awaits on the inside should you dare to break the law. But those things have disappeared. Police stations are mere houses and the courts have been closed and centralised, so people can be forgiven for being of the view that in their place is now a world where grooming gangs can get away with the industrialised sexual, physical and mental abuse of children. Lawless London seems free to evade a broken Met Police force. David Carrick; Wayne Couzens - monsters operating in plain sight and in police uniform. Prisons full to the brim, no-doubt, in part at least, because lags love the lifestyle - free to get their hands not just on contraband of any description - drugs, booze, weapons - but even on the prison officers themselves when a bit of how’s yer father takes their fancy!
2. The internet: some days I wish it did not exist. It has shortened our attention spans; made us lazy thinkers. Tragically, though, it is corrupting young minds and destroying fledgling lives. I can think of very few readily available - ubiquitous, even - things that gave me access as a boy to so much toxicity. From pornography to murder manuals; terror tactics to recipes for chemical weapons. Knives and swords delivered to your door at the click of a button. It represents an incessant Siren call of temptation to us all but to inquisitive, impressionable young people in particular, some of whom do not have the self-esteem, self-respect, self-awareness nor support and love from friends and family around them, in order to keep them from the rocks.

Now, please don’t write to me accusing me of oversimplifying things. I know and appreciate that what motivates individuals to cause others harm is nuanced, complex, cryptic. Hence why mistakes have been made in the past and hence further why so many expert textbooks have been written on the matter. However, there is good reason why I preface my own calls for law reform with a lament about the decline of behavioural standards alongside a note about improved technology. Because, taking together the irrefutable data about where Rudakubana was on that fateful day; what he did, the CCTV footage, forensics, tracking data, eye witnesses and police testimony - of him being caught in the act of slaughter, the courage of those officers the only thing that stopped further bloodshed - we also have his gleeful confession. He did it. He acknowledges he did it, and more to the point, such are his low standards, ethics and morals, he is boastfully glad about having done it. There can be and would be no mistake in relieving him of his existence, and right now, to me, doing so represents the only suitable punishment for this evil, worthless coward.

I suppose what I’m feeling is the sense that things have gone too far. I don’t know if it’s liberal nannying, social taboos, misguided pity, unwarranted sympathy … I honestly don’t know. But something has castrated our ability and/or willingness to enforce rules: from the classroom to public places - shoplifting has become a casual pastime - and, crucially, at home because home is where standards must be set; where expectations are laid out; where personalities are shaped and guidance is given. When homes fail in that mission, there must be an effective, confident and capable network of apparatus standing by. Right now, clearly, that isn’t the case.

This brings me onto Prevent. Self-styled as: ‘a Government-led, multi-agency counter terrorism organisation.’ Or, if you like, what should be: ‘an effective, confident and capable network of apparatus standing by…’

The sadistic Southport killer, Rudakubana, whose despicable acts of the most troubling evil were so viciously brutal in nature that the families of those slain begged people on social media not to share the details, was referred to Prevent THREE times. He was known to police, teachers, local authorities. His behaviour had raised red flags to the anti-terror agency. They knew he was fascinated by extreme violence. His time at one school ended when he arrived armed with a knife. He had an online search history that included MI5, the IRA, the London Bridge attack, Nazism and the Middle East. He was in possession of a pot of home-made ricin and an Al-Qaeda training manual - a jihadi guidebook on murder, for goodness sake - which detectives now say informed the techniques he used to kill three little girls and wound many more. Now, I’m no detective, but those jigsaw pieces, when placed together, paint a picture of terror to me. They do to everyone … everyone except the authorities, that is. Except to Prevent, most pertinently, which self-evidently now needs reform of the most thorough kind.

Watching the sentencing play out live on Sky News, its stalwart anchor Sarah-Jane Mee, whose journalism career has charged her with relaying so many difficult stories to the public, was broken by the details of Rudakubana’s atrocities. Brought to tears, paralysed by upset and incredulity. I found myself gulping back my own emotions and began piecing together how I too was feeling: sadness, anger, confusion. I thought: you know, it is little wonder that some people are now saying this has all the hallmarks of a cover-up. So much was known about this person, by so many agencies and authorities, yet so little was done. The silence that followed his rampage was left as a dangerous void that in the end was duly filled by conspiracy theories, misnomers and lies, to the point where other innocent people’s lives were put at risk to rioters by that same said silence. Sir Keir Starmer is at pains to say ‘the only people responsible for the riots (that followed the Southport killings) is the rioters themselves’ because deep down he must know that the people who could have stopped the ill-informed, race-hate-fuelled unrest did not do enough to do so. And if the law is such that it was that, in and of itself, which got in the way of a helpful intervention from the Prime Minister, then the law must be changed, too.

We must, therefore, welcome the launch of a public inquiry, charged with examining precisely what conspired - at the hands of whom - to enable a known, devastatingly dangerous individual to have so much contact with those whose raison d’etre it is to keep all of us, but especially the Elsies, Bebes and Alices in this country, safe from harm, whilst nothing was done to stop him. I welcome, too, the words of Conisbrough MP and Defence Secretary John Healey who has stated very firmly that nothing should be off the table when it comes to reform. And, yes, I (not the Minister) am referring to the death penalty because in Rudakubana’s case, there can and will be no redemption for him. And yet, the laws of the land prevent a judge from even handing this monster a whole life term, let alone put him to death. The death penalty aside, that cannot be right, and perhaps it is that which has taken to me the most extreme possible punishment I can think of for Rudakubana - that there is not, at present, a punishment befitting of his crimes, and so my deep sense of injustice on the part of his victims, for that being the case, will not abate. It is not hyperbole to contemplate, either, that no suitable punishment for what he did could ever exist.

So, as well as looking back at mistakes made and by whom, the inquiry must lay out, expertly, meaningful change. From sentencing powers to contempt laws; thresholds for preventative interventions - that lead to effective and warranted apprehensions of individuals deemed likely to cause others harm - to the minutiae of pragmatisms such as what safety measures must be in place in order for public venues to qualify for a safety certificate that qualifies a venue to host children so that they can sing and dance and play, to their hearts' content, safe from harm.

The time has come for things to come back in favour of good people; back in favour of the police and the security services who keep us safe, in order for trust and faith in their operations to be restored; back in the favour of rule-abiding decency.

James

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