Why was action not taken against Axel Rudakubana sooner? - Sarah Todd

Among the statements and revelations that came out in last week’s court case, the image of the armoury of weapons stored in Rudakubana’s bedroom sent such a shiver down the spine.

A police raid after the attacks found knives, archery arrows and a mystery substance later confirmed to be ricin, a biological toxin 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide.

The poison was found under his bed. Images and documents relating to violence, war and genocide were found on his laptop and other devices.

What on earth had his parents been thinking to allow him to live like this, surrounded by weapons?

That was what this correspondent thought. Surely to goodness, they should be in the dock as well for turning a blind eye to such potentially - and ultimately - lethal weapons?

Our son is 21 and it’s a family joke that whenever he’s home from university there isn’t so much as a stray cigarette lighter that isn’t spotted in his bedroom and brought downstairs for forensic-level assessment.

“I must have picked it up in a pub, they’re handy for lighting the fire,” he’ll say.

A white shirt rolled up into a ball under the bed covered in red wine and Guiness; there is nothing that escapes his mother. Same with his sister, 24 today, we laugh as she sneaks yet another online dress order upstairs. Something the parents of murdered Bebe King, six; Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven; and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, will never be able to do.

But back to Rudakubana’s parents, it turns out that yours truly needs to eat her words and that they asked police to step in and help them with their son.

It came out in court that they made a string of callouts over his worrying behaviour before the Southport attack.

Officers from Lancashire Constabulary attended the family’s home four times between 2021 and 2022, but each time failed to identify the threat he posed.

The revelations come after the 18-year-old was sentenced to at least 52 years in prison for carrying out the horrific attack.

Officers said on their last visit in May 2022 - made after Rudakubana’s father called the police claiming his son’s behaviour had escalated because they denied him access to a computer - the family appealed to the officers for help.

It came just two months after he was found carrying a knife on a bus after his mother had reported him missing. Officers took him back home, where they gave the mother advice on securing knives in the home.

In another callout in November 2021, it was reported that Rudakubana had kicked his father Alphonse, a minicab driver, and damaged his car. However, the father did not want to press charges.

It was the second time police had called to the property that month, after Rudakubana became distressed when a stranger came to the door on November 5 that year.

On each callout, officers made a vulnerable child referral to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (Mash), a partnership of agencies including police, education, social and healthcare teams designed to work together to identify and address risks to children and vulnerable adults.

It’s difficult to ask, but if he had been a white lad reported with a traditionally British name such as Smith, would he not have been brought into the police station and charged? It’s impossible to know, but it’s also impossible not to wonder whether people pussyfooted around for fear of being accused of being somehow racist.

For heaven’s sake, he had taken knives to school, called Childline to tell them he wanted to kill someone and was referred to the Government’s anti-radicalisation programme, Prevent, three times.

In the wake of the Southport sentencing the UK’s most senior police officer, Chief Constable Sir Mark Rowley of the Metropolitan Police, told LBC Radio about the thousands of young men currently “lost” in their bedrooms watching online violence.

“It’s horrific and shouldn't be in kids' bedrooms, but it is," he said.

Well why is it? And who is going to do something about it?