Starmer says UK must tackle 'new and dangerous' threat of lone male terrorists

LAST UPDATE | 18 hrs ago

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Keir Starmer has said the UK government must tackle the “new and dangerous” form of terrorism threat that the country faces.

He made the comments in an address this morning following a guilty plea yesterday in the case of the murder of three young girls in Southport last summer.

Axel Rudakubana, who pleaded guilty yesterday to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July, was referred three times to anti-extremism programme Prevent amid concerns over his fixation with violence.

But despite this and contact with other state agencies, the authorities failed to stop the attack which claimed the lives of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.

Starmer said the Southport murders showed “terrorism has changed”, with “acts of extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms”.

He said he will change the law if necessary to tackle the “new and dangerous” threat.

He said the tragedy of the Southport killings “must be a line in the sand for Britain”.

Announcing an inquiry yesterday evening, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the country needed “independent answers” on Prevent and other agencies’ contact with the “extremely violent” Rudakubana and “how he came to be so dangerous”.

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As well as the three murders, Rudakubana admitted 10 counts of attempted murder, possession of a knife, production of a biological toxin, ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit acts of terrorism.

The terrorism offence relates to a PDF file entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual. He is also understood to have possessed numerous other documents on violent subjects, including A Concise History Of Nazi Germany, The Myth Of The Remote Controlled Car Bomb and Amerindian Torture And Cultural Violence.

Sources said the material discovered showed an “obsession with extreme violence” but there was no evidence he ascribed to any political or religious ideology or was “fighting for a cause”.

Some opposition members have tried to allege that there was a “cover-up” of Rudakubana’s contact with the authorities.

However, the Home Secretary said the information about Rudakubana’s background could not be made public earlier “to avoid jeopardising the legal proceedings or prejudicing the possible jury trial, in line with the normal rules of the British justice system”.

Starmer also emphasised that point in his address this morning, saying: “If this trial had collapsed because I or anyone else had revealed crucial details while police were investigating, while the case was being built, while we were awaiting a verdict, then the vile individual who committed these crimes would have walked away a free man.

“The prospect of justice [would have been] destroyed for the victims and their families. I would never do that and nobody would ever forgive me if I had. That is why the law of this country forbade me or anyone else from disclosing details sooner,” he stated.

Starmer indicated he believes there needs to be stricter regulations about access to extremist material online.

“We still have rules in place in this country about what you can see at a cinema and yet online you can access no end of material. We have to ensure that we can rise to this new challenge and that is what I’m determined to do.”

Additional reporting by Lauren Boland