Autism was used to excuse Southport killer’s violence before murders, inquiry finds

A “misunderstanding of autism” was one of a series of “catastrophic” failures by multiple agencies that led to a knife attack in which three girls died, a damning inquiry has found.1 Axel Rudakubana was jailed for life after being found guilty of murdering Bebe King, Alice da Silva Aguiar, and Elsie Dot Stancombe and injuring 10 others at a children’s dance club in Southport, northwest England, in July 2024. The 700 page report, published at the end of the inquiry’s first phase, makes clear that there were dozens of warning signs of Rudakubana’s propensity for violence dating back to 2019 when, aged 13, he repeatedly took a knife into school. In the five following years leading up to the Southport attack Rudakubana had been in contact with multiple agencies, including the police, council officers, mental health services, and the antiterrorism agency Prevent. ### Five fundamental failures identified in the inquiry