Southport killer Axel Rudakubana researched car bombs, detonators and nitric acid amid fixation with violence
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Searches of Rudakubana’s home laid bare his disturbing obsession with violence, gore and massacres. Southport killer Axel Rudakubana is understood to have researched car bombs, detonators and nitric acid as his fascination with violence flourished unchecked online.
![[From left to right: Bebe King, six; Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven; and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine; died following the attack]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/22/00/77df68ed3d73fa7808cfba0b9b65a72cY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM3NTg5MTY3-2.78745096.jpg)
Searches of his devices have revealed an obsession with massacres, torture and a wide range of brutal conflicts, including the genocide in Rwanda, where his parents are from. Written material discovered by police after his knife rampage, which saw three girls murdered, also reportedly included documents on Nazi Germany, clan cleansing in Somalia, an uprising in Kenya and a treatise on combat in Chechnya.
![[Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer announced a public inquiry into the atrocity on Tuesday]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/22/00/019770ebf08e6670d39a8959037408e4Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM3NTg5MDA5-2.78756010.jpg)
The 18-year-old is also believed to have had a cache of weapons stashed at his home, including a machete, scabbard, arrows, castor beans and a 20cm kitchen knife identical to one used in the rampage. Before he left in a taxi to launch his attack on unsuspecting children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Merseyside on 29 July last year, it is understood he searched social media for the Mar Mari Emmanuel stabbing, when a bishop and five others were attacked in a Sydney church in April 2024.
Officers also discovered a Tupperware container under his bed containing an unknown substance, which was later found to be homemade biological toxin ricin. One PDF file entitled “Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual” resulted in him being charged with a terror offence.
