Agencies did not fully ‘take ownership of the risk’ while teenage killer’s parents bore ‘significant responsibility’ too
1-MIN READ1-MIN ListenReutersPublished: 9:08pm, 13 Apr 2026The murders of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event in Britain in 2024 should have been prevented, but there was a “fundamental failure” by state bodies to recognise the risk the killer posed, a public inquiry concluded on Monday.
Teenager Axel Rudakubana launched the frenzied knife attack at the summer holiday event in Southport, northern England, on July 29, 2024, in what Prime Minister Keir Starmer called “a devastating moment” in British history.
He was jailed for at least 52 years after he admitted the killings shortly before his trial last year.
Inquiry chair Adrian Fulford said there was a failure by agencies – including the police, the counter-radicalisation scheme Prevent and social services – to “take ownership of the risk” Rudakubana posed.
“This failure lies at the heart of why (Rudakubana) was able to mount the attack, despite so many warning signs of his capacity for fatal violence,” he added.
Rudakubana was referred to Prevent three times, firstly in December 2019 after taking a knife to school and searching online for school shootings, but no further action was taken.
