The Prevent counter-terrorism scheme “prematurely” closed its case on Axel Rudakubana three years before he went on to murder three children in Southport, a government review has found.
Security minister Dan Jarvis MP told the House of Commons Rudakubana had already discussed the Manchester Arena bombing and stabbing people when Prevent decided to end its involvement with him.
Rudakubana was 17 when he walked into a summer holiday dance workshop on 29 July last year, stabbing 11 children and two adults and killing nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar; Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and six-year-old Bebe King.
The learning review found counter terrorism officers staffing the Prevent scheme had “sufficient information” to escalate his case to the next stage – known as Channel – which would have included enhanced monitoring.
Mr Jarvis said the “importance of the families needing answers” meant that the Home Office was taking the “unusual step” of publishing its findings, which he said are normally technical documents circulated internally.
Southport MP Patrick Hurley told the chamber “it beggared belief” that the report noted Rudakubana’s name was spelled incorrectly on the Prevent database, which, the report found, had the potential to mean previous referrals would not show up in searches.
His first referral to Prevent in December 2019, when he was 13, was made by The Acorns special school where he was a pupil after being expelled from Range High School in Formby for carrying a knife.
In its analysis of that referral, the report stated: “He was conducting searches using the school’s internet on school shootings in America, was talking about drawing guns and searching on the internet for guns in another lesson, was also overheard talking to a pupil about watching videos of people hurting themselves and made a graphic comment about a drill bit breaking and killing someone.
“It is not known if this special interest in school shooting, violence and injury amounted to a fascination as this interest may not have been fully explored and understood.”
Source: www.bbc.com