Questions have been raised over what Axel Rudakubana’s parents knew about their son’s obsession with violence before the Southport attack.
The 18-year-old was sentenced to 52 years in prison on Thursday at Liverpool Crown Court for the “sadistic” murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.
Before the murders, Rudakubana purchased several knives online on Amazon as well as a machete and a set of arrows from an unknown site.
It is understood Amazon delivered the knife used in the murders to one of his parents.
Reform MP Rupert Lowe asked on X, formerly Twitter: “What did Rudakubana’s father know? When did he know it? Was the father aware of his intentions? Did the father prevent Rudakubana from attempting to murder school children? What potential action did he take? Did he inform the authorities? What did any of the family know? What action did anyone take?”
Axel Rudakubana (pictured right) books a taxi to The Range High School but does not make the journey after he was stopped by his father – Merseyside Police
It comes as a You Gov poll of 2,172 adults found Rudakubana’s parents are widely seen as culpable, with 72 per cent saying they hold responsibility for the attacks, although only about half of these say they hold “a great deal” of responsibility.
The week before the Southport attack, Alphonse Rudakubana stopped his son from getting into a taxi and travelling to his former school.
Rudakubana was wearing an identical outfit to the one he had on during the killings a week later.
A video released yesterday showed Alphonse running out and pleading with the driver not to take his son. After a brief argument, Rudakubana got out of the taxi and slunk back into the house.
It is not known why his father stopped him, or what Rudakubana planned to do at the school. But the teenager had been kicked out of the Range High School, Formby, in 2019 after he was caught carrying a knife.
Months later, he returned to the school with a hockey stick and brutally attacked a former classmate, for which he was prosecuted and convicted of assault.
Rudakubana’s parents, Alphonse and Laetitia, moved to the UK in 2002 from their native Rwanda.
His father worked as a taxi driver while his mother had a job at Cardiff University’s School of Dentistry.
The lounge at the home of Axel Rudakubana – Merseyside Police
He had an older brother and a former neighbour in the Welsh capital described the family as quiet and respectable but said the boys tended to be “boisterous”.
Alphonse was a keen student of Shotokan karate and encouraged Rudakubana to train in the hope the Japanese martial arts would instil some discipline.
Alphonse is thought to have fought with the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), an armed force that battled the Hutu-dominated regime in Rwanda and eventually brought an end to the mass ethnic killings of 1994.
The 49-year-old is reported to have been an RPA officer, possibly relatively senior, based in neighbouring Uganda, where his family are thought to have fled well before the genocide.
It previously emerged that there were multiple opportunities for different agencies to intervene over Rudakubana’s escalating violent behaviour.
Items found in Axel Rudakubana’s bedroom – Lakeman Nick James
In October 2019, the son contacted Childline and asked: “What should I do if I want to kill somebody?”
He said he was being bullied by someone at the Range High School in Formby. He said he wanted to kill them and he admitted he had taken a knife to school.
He was spoken to by police, who also spoke to the school, and officers made a vulnerable child referral to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (Mash).
In December 2019, he returned to the Range High School, after being expelled, and attacked a pupil with a hockey stick. He also had a kitchen knife in his backpack.
Rudakubana was arrested, charged and taken to court, where he admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of a bladed article. He was sentenced to a youth referral order, which he completed.
On November 30 2021 police were called to the family home following an argument in which Rudakubana had kicked his father and caused damage to his car.
The father did not want to prosecute his son and the police officer supported the decision.
A knife identical to the one used in the attack carried out by Axel Rudakubana at The Hart Space – Merseyside Police
On March 17 2022, Rudakubana’s mother called the police to report him missing after he left the house while his parents were out.
When officers found him, Rudakubana was compliant but admitted that he had a knife which was found during a subsequent search.
Despite having a previous conviction for assault and possession of a knife, Rudakubana was taken home and placed in the care of his parents.
Officers advised his mother regarding securing knives in the home and, owing to the concern about his behaviour, police then made a vulnerable child referral to the Mash.
Two weeks before he carried out the Southport attack, Rudakubana, then 17, bought two Apollo Cerbera kitchen knives with 20cm long blades on July 13 2024.
One of the knives was later used in the killings. The Amazon driver who delivered the knife used in the murders is understood to have handed the package to an adult who was visibly over 25, according to the retailer.
Under Amazon’s two-stage age checks, the driver could hand it over to an adult other than Rudakubana provided he had established that they were over 18, either by looking over 25 or through checking a recognised ID.
On Friday it also emerged that Axel Rudakubana was treated by Alder Hey Children’s Hospital’s mental health services between 2019 and 2023.
It said, however, that by February 2023 he had stopped engaging with mental health teams entirely.