Parents of Southport attack victims have 'disdain' for killer's father

The parents of the three young girls murdered by the Southport attacker have 'complete disdain' for his father, a public inquiry heard today.

Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were killed and ten others left seriously injured when Axel Rudakubana, then 17, went on his rampage at the Taylor Swift-themed dance class last July.

Today Rudakubana's father, Alphonse, 49, told the girls' parents that his youngest son was a 'monster' who murdered their 'beautiful angels'.

He said he knew Axel was hoarding large knives and weapons in the months and weeks before the attack, and that he had potentially foiled an attempt by his son to set fire to his old school, seven days before the murder spree.

But Mr Rudakubana said he lacked 'courage' and the 'pure love' for his son had stopped him from reporting him to police.

Nicholas Bowen KC, who represents the parents of Elsie, Bebe and Alice, told Mr Rudakubana: 'All three sets of parents have listened to what you've written and what you've said and have complete disdain for your excuses and the manner in which you have answered questions.'

However, Sir Adrian Fulford, chairman of the inquiry, criticised the barrister for not raising the comments with him in advance and said they were 'not appropriate'.

Asked earlier if he wanted to say anything to the parents of the girls, Mr Rudakubana insisted he 'cried all the time' for them.

'I'd like to say my deepest sympathy,' he said. 'My condolences for their beautiful angels whose lives were taken away by my son.

'I am so desperately sorry for them and everyone else who's been harmed.

'I cry for them all the time because I have a reminder (of) my son who turned (out) to be a monster.'

He added: 'I'm so ashamed I lost the courage to save their little angels, I'm so, so sorry.'

Mr Rudakubana agreed with Mr Bowen that he bore a 'significant degree of personal culpability and personal responsibility for the manifest and manifold failures' from October 2019 - when Axel was expelled from mainstream education aged 13 - until the date of the attack.

'I shared the responsibility, there was failure on my part,' he added. 'The moral failure for not having done anything. I could have done far more.'

But he said he had a 'visceral bond' with his son and 'pure love' had stopped him from calling police.

'Especially on the 22nd (July),' he said. 'On the 29th things happened so quickly and there was no time, but definitely on the 22nd.

'I take responsibility for all the failures, so much went wrong, which was not his (Axel's) doing.'

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The inquiry heard that Mr Rudakubana told police that his son was a 'good boy' but now he believed he was 'a different person'.

'I love him so much, he's my son (but) he is no longer a good boy,' he added. 

'He's a dangerous individual…but that bond, nobody can break it.'

He agreed with Mr Bowen that his failure to dial 999 had been 'immoral and unacceptable,' but asked whether he thought 'any decent person' would have called in police, Mr Rudakubana replied: 'I wouldn't go that far. I think the love I had for him overruled good judgement.'

Earlier, Mr Rudakubana told the inquiry he had been hiding knives from his son since 2019, when he was aged just 13.

He admitted he knew a package Axel ordered under a fake name, in June 2023, contained a 'large knife' but insisted he was 'too afraid' to open it.

Instead, he hid it on top of a wardrobe. Officers discovered a 22-inch survival machete and a sharpening stone inside the package after Axel's arrest.

Mr Rudakubana accepted his failure to tell the authorities 'emboldened' his son to order more weapons online.

'I regret not telling police because if I had, what happened on 29th July, wouldn't have happened,' he said.

Nicholas Moss, KC, for the inquiry, said: 'What effect do you think that had on AR? 

'Do you think he thought, "I didn't get into trouble with dad, I will just try again".'

Mr Rudakubana replied: 'Looking back, I think it may have emboldened him and encouraged him to order more things that followed.'

Axel went on to buy two more machetes before Mr Rudakubana took the delivery of the two knives his son ordered from Amazon - one of which he used in the attack - on July 15, just over two weeks before.

Mr Moss pointed out that the packaging detailed that it contained a 'bladed item' but Mr Rudakubana insisted he hadn't read it properly because he was 'tired' and working nights as a taxi driver when it was delivered.

'This was a serious breach of your duty as a parent, and the reason why it was a serious breach is you knew he had ordered a large heavy knife previously,' Mr Moss said.

'Yes,' Mr Rudakubana replied.

'I'm sorry I didn't read. I don't have a good (explanation). It's terrible.'

Mr Rudakubana admitted he withheld 'some information' from child and adolescent mental health services (CAHMS) about his son's violent behaviour and weapons collection, and accepted there was a 'massive difference' between what he knew and the CAMHS assessment, on July 23. 

That report said Axel posed 'no risk' and he was signed off their care. 

But Mr Rudakubana said: 'I believe he posed a risk to me, only me.'

He also told the inquiry, in Liverpool, that at the time he thought he was supporting his son's treatment, adding: 'But I fell short, now, looking back.'

Mr Rudakubana admitted he knew his son had asked for petrol because he was considering setting fire to his old school, The Range High School, in Formby, and had planned to attack it on the last day of term – on July 22 – a week before the attack. 

Axel was expelled from the Range High School, in October 2019, for taking a knife into classes.

His father only managed to stop the earlier attack by persuading a taxi driver not to take him.

But afterwards, the inquiry heard, Axel warned his father: 'Next time, if you stop me there will be consequences.'

Mr Moss said: 'He was going to do a serious criminal attack and you had done the right thing and stopped him…but you knew he was thinking about doing it again?'

'Not necessarily,' Mr Rudakubana replied.

The inquiry heard that Mr Rudakubana sent a message to his wife later that day, saying: 'Our child needs to be protected. Imagine how those things have faded away and he could have been killed or imprisoned for good/for life.'

But he insisted it wasn't 'fair' to say he had no regard for those his son was thinking of attacking, and claimed he wrote the message 'rushing between jobs'.

He also admitted being 'relieved' the school was closed for the summer but said he didn't call police because it was 'too overwhelming'.

Mr Moss said: 'This needed urgent action and I think you would accept that now?'

'Yes, I am ashamed,' Mr Rudakubana said.

'I accept that responsibility, it was obvious then but it required so much courage.'

He said he and his wife hadn't had time to talk about what happened before their son went on his murder spree at the Hart Space, in the seaside town, a week later.

And he insisted this was the 'real reason' they didn't dial 999, not that he was worried his son would be arrested or imprisoned.

Mr Rudakubana also described a frightening incident earlier that day when his son had threatened him with a knife in his bedroom after he refused to hand over the  'bigger' machete from the top of the wardrobe.

Mr Rudakubana said he felt 'extremely vulnerable' because his son was stabbing the bed to 'scare' him.

The inquiry heard he fell onto the floor and pleaded with Axel: 'Please stop, it's not here, it's downstairs,' and managed to distract him to get away.

Later, after Mr Rudakubana stopped Axel from taking a taxi to The Range, his son returned inside and 'surprisingly' allowed him to tidy up his bedroom, he said.

But he was 'shocked' to discover a 'small arsenal' of weapons in his son's room, including a bow and arrow and the ingredients he later understood could be used to make the toxic poison, ricin.

Later, Mr Rudakubana broke down in tears as he described how his 'calculating' son's crimes were 'out of his understanding'.

He admitted he did nothing when his reclusive son left the house to carry out the attack, on July 29, and simply 'hoped for the best.'

The inquiry has heard that Axel 'tricked' his parents by pretending he was a going out for a walk, but in reality he went out and called a taxi to the dance class.

Mr Rudakubana, who gave his evidence via video-link and out of view of the public from a undisclosed location, said: 'I was encouraged, I felt it was a good thing for him to go out and that I would worry later. 

'My brain just didn't want to go there, to think about something bad.'

He admitted, however, that as soon as he heard about the stabbing he suspected his son could be involved.

Choking back tears, Mr Rudakubana said: 'I was just clinging on to the hope that he was going for a walk…the direction he took, the way he fooled us, I couldn't believe how calculating…it's something that's out of our understanding what happened.'

He said he had no idea why his son changed his target from the Range to the dance class and insisted that, after Axel's failed attack on July 22, he and his wife thought they had two months over the school holidays to decide what to do.

'The reason I didn't call the police is because there was no consensus yet and we were not ready to make that decision,' he added.

'I knew, of course, if I tell the police they would take him away. It's a crime, the things we were seeing at home they were crimes. 

'We honestly thought we had two months. A week came too soon. We never realised he was capable.'

Mr Moss asked if the agencies could have done anything differently to have helped him contact police before July 29.

But he admitted: 'It was down to our judgment and our judgment was poor and it was influenced by the fact that he was our son, he is ill and everything. 

'But had we had any clear instruction, of course, we would have.'

The inquiry, at Liverpool Town Hall, continues.