A retired judge has concluded that improved cooperation from the parents of Axel Rudakubana in the final days of July 2024 would have “almost certainly” prevented the mass stabbing that killed three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, U.K. The finding is among the most pointed in a 763-page report released April 13, 2026, following a nine-week public inquiry into one of the worst attacks on children in British history.
Sir Adrian Fulford, the retired judge who led the inquiry, found that Rudakubana’s parents created “significant obstacles” that prevented agencies from accessing their son and properly assessing the threat he posed. Both parents, who moved to the U.K. from Rwanda, gave evidence remotely. His mother testified: “There are many things that Alphonse and I wish we had done differently, anything that might have prevented the horrific event of July 29, 2024.”
The report describes a “sheer number of missed opportunities over many years to intervene meaningfully” and delivers a sweeping conclusion: every single death was avoidable. Six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar were killed in the July 29, 2024 attack. Ten others were wounded, and 16 more — many of them children — continue to suffer serious psychological trauma.
Fulford called the killings unprecedented in the U.K. for their “extreme and very particular depravity.” He issued 67 recommendations aimed at preventing similar tragedies, with a second phase of the inquiry set to examine whether authorities should have greater powers to restrict or monitor internet access for children who pose a risk to others.
Rudakubana arrived at the Hart Space dance studio by taxi on the morning of July 29, 2024, having booked the ride under a false name. Wearing a surgical mask and green hoodie, he entered through the unlocked front door at 11:45 a.m. with an 8-inch chef’s knife purchased online under an alias. Two girls died at the scene and a third the following day. Police found him standing over Bebe King’s body, still holding the weapon.
After his arrest, Rudakubana told police: “I’m glad those kids are dead, it makes me happy.” The prosecution said two of his victims suffered at least 85 and 122 sharp force injuries. No clear motive was ever established. The attack sparked days of nationwide rioting fueled by online misinformation about the attacker’s identity.
The trail of warning signs stretched back years. In December 2019, a 13-year-old Rudakubana brought a kitchen knife and hockey stick to Range High School in Formby and attacked another student. Fulford described this as a “watershed event” that should have prompted agencies to classify him as a high risk of harm to others. He received a 10-month referral order.
From 2019 through 2021, authorities referred him to Prevent — the U.K. government’s anti-extremism program — on three occasions after he showed fascination with the 2017 London Bridge attack, school shootings, and the Irish Republican Army. Officials closed every referral. School administrators expelled him after he confessed to carrying a knife on 10 different days. He rarely showed up to his next school and ultimately cut off all contact with social workers.
Perhaps the most critical failure came in March 2022. Rudakubana was caught on a bus carrying a knife and told police he wanted to stab someone. He also admitted trying to make poison. Lancashire Constabulary accepted it had missed an opportunity to arrest him that day. Had they done so, a search of his home would likely have uncovered ricin seeds he had purchased and terrorist material downloaded to his computer — including an Al-Qaeda training manual.
Local police were called to his home five times during that same period. The report describes a system in which agency after agency passed the case along without ever taking responsibility for the danger he posed.
Rudakubana pleaded guilty to all 16 charges in January 2025 and was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 52 years.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called the report “harrowing” and pledged “total determination” to make changes across the state. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was set to address the House of Commons following the report’s release. The government has pledged to implement sweeping reforms based on the inquiry’s 67 recommendations, which include new legislative measures to close what has been described as an “ideology loophole” for non-political mass casualty plots and improved monitoring of at-risk children’s online activity.
