Full list of terrifying finds at Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana's house

Books about genocide, war, mass murder a machete and scientific equipment used to produce ricin were among the items found at the home of Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana. The 18-year-old of Banks, West Lancashire, killed three young girls at a Taylor Swift themed dance party.

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine; Bebe King, six; and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, lost their lives on July 29 last year. Rudakubana was due to stand trial at Liverpool Crown Court this week, facing 16 charges, including three counts of murder.

But on Monday (January 20), Rudakubana’s counsel Stanley Reiz KC told presiding judge Mr Justice Goose the indictment would have to be put to the defendant again so the teenager could change his pleas to guilty.

Rudakubana, 17 at the time of the attack, admitted the three murders, as well as the attempted murders of eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, alongside two adults, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes who were also stabbed in the attack.

He admitted 10 counts of attempted murder; possession of a bladed article in a public place; production of a biological toxin, namely ricin, and possession of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, namely a PDF file entitled 'Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual'.

Rudakubana, described by a senior Crown Prosecution Service solicitor as a 'young man with a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence', perpetrated one of the most heinous attacks ever seen on Merseyside when he entered a children's' dance party armed with a knife.

Rudakubana, who had taken a taxi to the Hart Space on Hart Street, moved 'systematically through the room', stabbing children who tried to flee while brave adults including Ms Lucas and Mr Hayes ran to help.

He was detained at the scene by police officers shortly after midday and was later charged. He was further charged with production of the deadly toxin ricin and possessing the military study of the Al-Qaeda training manual in October last year after police finished their searches of his house.

The Liverpool Echo has now revealed the full list of items found at Rudakubana's house - a three bedroom newbuild property in a leafy cul-de-sac. The search for items began around an hour after he was arrested but was halted the following day when a tub containing an unknown substance was found under his bed.

After examination it was confirmed to be ricin. The deadly toxin, which can kill a person if inhaled or injected has no antidote, is understood the ricin was never used during the mass stabbing or at any other time.

Officers searching the property also found a machete, a Cerbera knife, identical to the one used to carry out the stabbing and arrows. An empty bag from Premier Seeds Direct, said to contain 150 seeds was also found, along with a receipt that showed the castor beans - from which the ricin was extracted - were ordered on January 19 2022 under the name 'Al Rud'.

In a cardboard box under the floorboards was a pair of goggles, two white funnels, a conical flask with brown residue in it, as well as a pestle and mortar containing pulp. All the items had been purchased from Amazon in 2022.

In the family’s living room, where it appeared Rudakubana had been sleeping, was a duvet with the Cerbera knife inside it. Officers also recovered two Lenovo tablets and an HP laptop. The browsing history had been deleted from the devices but police were able to recover some of the information in it.

One of the tablets had been in use since 2021 and had various VPNs on it, used for encrypted communication and to mask his IP address when he bought the castor beans. Cached images were also found relating to wars and international conflicts including in Ukraine, Gaza and Korea.

The PDF file entitled 'Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual' was found on the same tablet which included instructions on how to carry out knife attacks. The manual was downloaded on at least two occasions in 2021, meaning he was in possession of the military study when he purchased the castor beans.

The second Lenovo tablet was purchased in October 2023. Documents found on the tablet covered a wide range of violent conflicts including the history of Nazi Germany, violence around Buddhism in Sri Lanka, clan cleansing in Somalia, Rwandan genocide, Iraq and Balkans conflict, victims of torture, tales of beheadings and cartoons depicting violence.

Some of the titles found in his house included ‘A place under heaven - Amerindian Torture and Cultural Violence’, ‘The Mau Mau War: British Counterinsurgency in Colonial Kenya’, ‘Death and survival during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda’ and ‘Examination of punishments dealt to slave rebels in two 18th Century British Plantation Societies’.

Email analysis revealed Rudakubana had ordered a similar knife to that used in the attack on June 21 but the order was cancelled due to a failed payment. On July 13 a similar knife from Amazon was again cancelled for the same reason - but two Cerbera knives were then ordered while using a VPN and were delivered on July 20. Some of the emails revealed requests for the items to be delivered in plain packaging.

According to the ECHO, on the day of the heinous attack on July 29 Rudakubana used a tablet to look up the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel - who was attacked at his church in Sydney in 2024. Although he deleted his browsing history before he left, the link he had followed showed a video of the stabbing.

Police officers involved in the case would say Rudakubana had an obsession with extreme violence and used his devices to obtain information on killings around the world. Officers would say his search history would show his actions at the Hart Space were premeditated.

However, due to the wide-ranging material he viewed, officers said Rudakubana did not prescribe to any political, religious or ideological way of thinking. Instead officers and prosecutors said his only purpose was to kill and he did so by targeting the youngest and most vulnerable he could in an attack that left “an enduring mark on our community and the nation for its savagery and senselessness”.

Although he was charged under the Terrorism Act in relation to the discovery of the Al-Quada military study, the mass stabbing was not declared a terrorist incident as “motivation would need to be established”. However, an official document seen by the ECHO stated Rudakubana was referred to Prevent - a multi-agency taskforce spearheaded by Counter Terrorism Policing tasked with preventing vulnerable people from being drawn into criminal behaviour - on three separate occasions. The ECHO said it understands one of the referrals came after he was found to have researched terror attacks.