Southport killer able to buy a blade on Amazon aged 17 despite conviction for violence
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Southport killer Axel Rudakubana admitted carrying a knife more than 10 times but was still able to buy a blade on Amazon, Yvette Cooper said. The Home Secretary added public bodies “completely failed to identify the terrible danger that he posed”.
She told MPs: “Yet the action against him was far too weak. “And despite the fact he’d been convicted for violence and was just 17, he was easily able to order a knife on Amazon. “That’s a total disgrace and it must change.”. Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside, in July.
Despite contact with state agencies such as Prevent, aimed at countering terrorism, authorities failed to stop the attack which claimed the lives of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven. Cooper announced an inquiry into the case, telling MPs on Tuesday the Government will “consider the wider challenge of rising youth violence” and that requests will be made to tech companies to remove online material accessed by Rudakubana.
Despite a previous conviction for violence, at the age of 17 he was able to order a kitchen knife from Amazon which he used to fatally stab the girls. Tougher laws could be needed to regulate the “nightmares of the online world”, Sir Keir Starmer said after it emerged Axel Rudakubana trawled the internet for extreme violent content before the Southport atrocity.
