The head of the UK’s largest police force has welcomed a review of contempt of court laws and said it would be great if more information in cases could be shared at an earlier stage. His comments come after the Prime Minister said the online spread of content in apparent breach of England’s contempt of court rules will be investigated as part of a public inquiry into the Southport stabbings.
Sir Keir Starmer defended the decision taken by authorities not to share information about the case earlier on, insisting that to do so would have risked collapsing a potential jury trial. Following the attack by 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana last July, in which he murdered three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, a slew of false claims circulated on social media about the circumstances surrounding the killings.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described the Southport attack as “horrific” and said listening to the remarks at sentencing and the experiences of the families is “moving for all of us”. He was asked on LBC on Friday if he thinks the public should have been better informed about what the authorities already knew following the attack.
“We have very strict contempt of court laws in the UK. “As policing, we would always start from the principle we’d like to have as much information out as possible. “But we work with (the) CPS. “They’re officers of the court and we have to make sure we don’t undermine a trial,” he said.
