NewsBeat
Manhunt for scooter suspect after woman killed in ‘targeted’ incident in Luton | UK News
A manhunt is under way for a suspect who fled on a scooter after a woman was killed in a “targeted” incident in Luton.
Police have started a murder investigation after officers were called to Turners Road North around 11.45am on Monday to reports of an altercation.
Emergency services attended, but a 46-year-old woman died in hospital and another woman in her 20s was injured.
The suspect escaped on a black and red electric scooter and is described as a white man with a shaved head, aged in his 20s.
Bedfordshire Police said he was “very slim”, around 5ft9 to 5ft10, dressed all in black, with a hood.
“It is absolutely imperative that we locate the person responsible as soon as possible,” said Detective Inspector Adam Bridges.
“This horrendous incident, which is believed to be targeted, has sadly resulted in one woman losing her life and another sustaining serious injuries, which are not thought to be life-threatening,” he added.
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The scooter used to flee the scene was recovered and people are asked to call 999 and quote Operation Wroxham if they have information.
An increased police presence is in place at the property and surrounding area, police added.
2025 is Britain’s last chance to avoid a long-term migration catastrophe of Boris Johnson’s making, a leading think tank has warned.
Back in March 2021, Boris Johnson’s Home Secretary Priti Patel introduced the “New Plan for Immigration” to the Commons.
A few months later, the Office for National Statistics announced that 332,000 non-EU migrants had arrived in Britain between June 2020 and June of that year.
A few years later, 1,034,000 non-EU migrants arrived in Britain over the same June-to-June period. A more than 200 per cent increase.
Damning data shows a sharp spike in non-EU migration immediately after Johnson and Patel’s ‘new plan’
UK GOVERNMENT
Patel had hailed what she called a “significant overhaul of our asylum system”. It was “new, comprehensive, fair, but firm”.
She had promised “new rules to stop unscrupulous people posing as children”, a beefed-up Border Force, and “rapid removals” of “those with no right to be here in the UK”.
With Brexit having been delivered, and EU free movement no longer foisted upon the UK, Westminster could now look further afield. At the time, that was Hong Kong, as dissidents to Xi Jinping’s regime found themselves unexpectedly crushed under China’s boot in the former British dependent territory.
Leaving the EU would let Britain be “immigration liberals”, wrote James Forsythe, future Political Secretary to future Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, with Hongkongers in mind.
He had written that the issue on the minds of many Brexit-backers “was control, not immigration levels, per se”.
READ MORE ON BRITAIN’S MIGRATION CHAOS:
Leaving the EU would let Britain be ‘immigration liberals’, wrote James Forsythe
GETTY/THE TIMES
Then, in May 2022 – and midway through an unprecedented surge in arrivals from outside the EU – the Johnson Government’s interpretation of the Australian ‘points-based system’ was accused of having “significantly weakened control” over Britain’s borders.
Those numbers would keep climbing until 2024, the ONS says, and they’re now expected to drop.
That surge has been branded by some as the “Boriswave” – a term which found its origins on social media, and has since made its way to think tanks and political parties alike. On December 29, Reform UK officially adopted the term in a scathing attack on Johnson’s non-European migration surge.
Proponents of the term will argue Johnson and his Government directly oversaw – and allowed the conditions for – millions of non-EU nationals to come to Britain.
And now, with Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) open to most of those who arrived via the Work or Family visa route after five years, Britain faces a “ticking clock“.
That’s the warning of Sam Bidwell, of the Adam Smith Institute, who calls for an immediate reform of ILR rules to “limit the long-term harms of the so-called ‘Boriswave’”, which will start being handed ILR for life from early 2026.
The surge in non-EU migration has been branded by some as the ‘Boriswave’
PA
That will give the “Boriswave” the right to taxpayer-funded state benefits, the ability to use the NHS free-of-charge, and the chance to bring in family members – a “cascade of dependents”, as Bidwell put it.
Britain’s system “was not designed to cope with long-term settlement at such scale and pace,” he warns.
Even if Labour manages to deliver 1.5 million new homes between now and 2029, the scale of the non-EU migration wave is such that that tally could be wiped out entirely.
If such a large amount of people are, in fact, here to stay, the consequences could be dire.
Bidwell himself butted heads with ex-Spectator editor Fraser Nelson just days ago after the latter penned an article in The Telegraph headlined: “Britain’s integration miracle is a beacon of hope amid instability.”
Nelson had argued that Britishness – part of which the “Boriswave” could soon comprise – is “a set of values that anyone can adopt”.
But under Johnson and Patel’s “new plan”, the UK has imported millions of people who, as Bidwell says, are “less culturally compatible” than the EU migrants who came before.
He points to damning statistics on integration, like how 52 per cent of British Muslims would support making it illegal to depict the Prophet Mohammed, or how Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in the UK are less employed and take up more social housing than national averages.
Bidwell also casts off “oft-cited figures about Indian high-earners” as a “misrepresentative statistical fudge” directly due to the “Boriswave”.
Thanks to the recent influx of Indian nationals (240,000 in the last year alone, according to the ONS), the median Indian (aged 22-40) now earns less than the national average.
The difficulty of integration may not be so obvious to “the Westminster bubble”, as Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe pointed out on social media.
For them, “integration means cheap labour and exotic food”, but “out in proper Britain, integration has largely not worked”, he says.
“On such a vast scale, it has been an undeniable failure.”
Bidwell’s ILR plans were written before the reemergence of Britain’s grooming gangs scandal – which has thrust mass migration into the spotlight once again.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick warned that some of those who have migrated to the UK in recent years have “backward, frankly medieval attitudes to women” – adding that “we have to be very careful about who is coming into this country”.
‘Integration has largely not worked… it has been an undeniable failure,’ Rupert Lowe has warned
GETTY
But Jenrick was Rishi Sunak’s Immigration Minister for more than a year – and oversaw part of the “Boriswave”.
The Tory leadership runner-up shifted from campaigning for Remain in 2016 to his new role as a migration hardliner – which one former Minister blamed on his stint in the Home Office.
Before that, “he was seen as sensible, pragmatic and fairly centrist,” a former Minister told the i last summer.
“He was very good as the Communities Secretary, but he seems to have been radicalised by his time in the Home Office,” they added.
That’s the same Home Office which Sam Bidwell has previously accused of falling victim to “performative empathy“.
Jenrick has been vocal on mass immigration post-leadership bid – sparking fury from ex-Johnson adviser Samuel Kasumu, who claimed to the BBC that he could be “the most divisive person in our political history” and “has the potential to incite hatred in ways that I have never seen”.
But he issued a stark warning last November. “Some parts of our country are unrecognisable from 30 years ago,” Jenrick said.
And, of course, there’s the fiscal impact too.
Robert Jenrick was ‘radicalised by his time in the Home Office’, one former Minister told the i
PA
“According to figures produced by the OBR, the average ‘low-wage migrant worker’ will cost the British taxpayer £465,000 by the time they reach 81 years of age,” Bidwell’s policy recommendation warns.
“According to analysis conducted by Karl Williams, from the Centre for Policy Studies, just 5 per cent of all visas in 2022-23 were given to high-skilled migrants who are likely to be net contributors,” he adds.
Pockets of social media aside, Johnson has largely evaded criticism for overseeing the introduction of so many fiscally harmful and culturally “incompatible” migrants to Britain.
Asked why, Bidwell told GB News: “He still carries a lot of capital with a certain sort of Brexit voter… because he was the face of Vote Leave.
“He has managed to escape scrutiny because many of those voters – particularly older voters in that cohort – will see him as the man who got Brexit done.”
Johnson has escaped scrutiny because voters ‘see him as the man who got Brexit done’
PA
The former PM now “enjoys a kind of comfortable martyrdom” despite the “Boriswave” because “one might argue that he was arguing for an anti-immigration cause”, he added.
Integrating the “wave” will be “a lengthy and difficult process”, Bidwell says.
The solution? Triple the ILR threshold to 15 years.
Britain should put safeguards in place to ensure that “high-quality, compatible” migrants from countries such as the US, Australia, and Canada continue coming to Britain.
And if Labour doesn’t have the mettle, a future Government could one day revoke ILR status from existing holders by amending Section 76 of the Nationality, Immigration, and Asylum Act 2002.
Such a move would doubtless prove unpalatable to the current Government, despite its promises to stem the flow of migration – and even then, only illegal migration.
As Bidwell says, “it seems unlikely” that Labour would do such a thing.
“However”, he adds, “this fact alone does not mean that the British people need to live with the mistakes of the past few years for decades to come”.
NewsBeat
Rupert Murdoch’s publishers pay more than £1bn and counting after latest Prince Harry settlement
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Rupert Murdoch’s UK publishing business has paid out more than £1bn over the phone-hacking scandal and its subsequent legal fees, with the latest settlement involving Prince Harry reported to be at least £10m.
On Wednesday morning, the Duke of Sussex’s barrister announced that News Group Newspapers (NGN) had offered an “unequivocal apology” and agreed to pay substantial damages.
According to royal correspondent Chris Ship, these amounted to an “eight-figure” sum, marking a significant addition to the total.
The payout follows years of legal battles stemming from allegations of unlawful information-gathering by journalists and private investigators working for NGN’s titles.
Harry and Lord Tom Watson, former Labour deputy leader, were the final remaining claimants in the case against NGN, which denied the allegations, after many high-profile figures – including actor Hugh Grant – had already settled similar claims.
By 2021, it was widely reported that NGN had already spent over £1bn in damages to 1,300 people, including legal fees.
Since then, Murdoch’s company has reached settlement agreements with 39 additional individuals, culminating in today’s high-profile settlement with the Duke of Sussex.
Between July and December last year, the 39 individuals who reached settlements with NGN included among their cast the actor Hugh Grant, who resolved his claim in April after being warned he risked £10m in legal costs if his case went to trial.
Other high-profile individuals who settled included actress Sienna Miller, former footballer Paul Gascoigne, comedian Catherine Tate, radio presenter Chris Moyles, Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm, ex-Boyzone member Shane Lynch, and actor Mathew Horne.
For Prince Harry, however, the financial compensation was arguably secondary to the “full and unequivocal apology” issued by The Sun for its use of private investigators, and by the now-defunct News of the World for phone hacking.
NGN also apologised to the duke for “the impact on him of the extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life, as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, particularly during his younger years.”
Speaking outside the High Court in London, Harry’s barrister, David Sherborne, described the agreements as a “vindication for the hundreds of other claimants who were strong-armed into settling.”
He added: “After endless resistance, denials and legal battles by News Group Newspapers – including spending more than a billion pounds in payouts and legal costs, as well as paying off those in the know to prevent the full picture from coming out – News UK is finally held to account for its illegal actions and its blatant disregard for the law.”
In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, an NGN spokesperson clarified that the apology to Harry included “incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for The Sun, not by journalists, during the period 1996-2011.”
The spokesperson added: “There are strong controls and processes in place at all our titles today to ensure this cannot happen now. There was no voicemail interception on The Sun.”
They also addressed publicly made allegations that News International had destroyed evidence in 2010-2011, stating that these claims “would have been the subject of significant challenge at trial” and “continue to be strongly denied.”
The Trump administration has expanded the process to swiftly deport undocumented immigrants who cannot prove they have lived in the US continuously for two years or more.
US border agents have been told to summarily deport migrants without allowing them to request legal protection, according to internal documents obtained by CBS, the BBC’s US partner.
The US has also moved to cancel all refugee travel and processing, leaving thousands stranded as they wait to come to the US.
Trump has promised mass deportations and declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border that he says will allow the government to deploy troops and surge additional resources.
Trump has signed a flurry of immigration and border-related actions and decrees this week aimed at cracking down on immigration.
The orders include tackling the definition of birthright citizenship and declaring illegal immigration at the border a national emergency.
A notice posted on the website of the Federal Register says the expedited removal policy took effect on the evening of 21 January.
The policy, which has traditionally been limited to undocumented migrants detained within 100 miles (160km) of the country’s international borders, now allows officers to use it anywhere in the US.
“The effect of this change will be to enhance national security and public safety – while reducing government costs – by facilitating prompting immigration determinations,” the notice reads.
It adds that the change will allow the Department of Homeland Security to address “the large volume of aliens” in the US illegally and ensure the “prompt removal…of those not entitled to enter, remain, or be provided relief or protection”.
The expanded policy could be challenged in court.
Until now, “unauthorised” immigrants detained in the US were given a notice to appear in immigration court, where they could present their case for asylum.
Deportation proceedings typically couldn’t begin until a judge issued a decision.
But earlier this week, Trump cited an immigration law – 212(f) – that allows the president to suspend the entry of foreign nationals deemed “detrimental” to the US.
Citing internal documents and US officials, CBS has reported that the policy also applies to the US border with Canada and to Customs and Border Protection’s maritime sectors, such as Florida.
The separate order to stop refugee travel and processing comes just days after Trump signed an executive order suspending the US’s Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), saying America “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans”.
It halts USRAP until “further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States”, the order says.
More than 1,600 Afghans who had already been approved to come to the US have had their travel plans cancelled, prompting an advocacy group, Afghan USRAP Refugees, to pen an open letter to President Trump.
More than 3,000 other Afghan nationals are waiting in Albania to be resettled in the US.
In another significant departure from the Biden administration’s immigration policies announced on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security has rescinded existing guidelines that prevent immigration officers from entering “sensitive” areas such as schools.
In a statement, DHS said that the guidelines “thwart” law enforcement.
“This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP [Customs and Border Protection] and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens – including murderers and rapists – who have illegally come into our country,” a DHS spokesman said.
The spokesman added that “the Trump administration will not tie the hands” of law enforcement, and expects them to “use common sense.”
A two-year-old boy and 41-year-old man have been killed while two others were injured in a stabbing incident in the southern German state of Bavaria.
A man, described by police as a 28-year-old Afghan national, has been arrested following the knife attack in a park in Aschaffenburg on Wednesday.
Police said the two seriously injured people were receiving hospital treatment and that a cordon remained in place in the area around the scene.
Officers have said the motive for the attack is currently unclear.
Near the crime scene in Aschaffenburg.
Pic: DPA/AP
The suspect, who had followed a day care group of five small children, was detained at the scene in Schoental park, an English-style garden in the Bavarian city, where the attack occurred at around 11.45am local time.
Train services in the town were temporarily interrupted as the suspect tried to flee along the tracks, German news agency dpa reported.
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Pic: DPA/AP
However, he was quickly detained, police said.
A witness is being questioned, police added. They said there was no indication of further suspects and no danger to the public.
Police said they did not know the nationality of the two people who were killed and they did not release any details about those injured.
Germany has been hit by a string of violent attacks, including a car ramming into a crowd at a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg in December, killing six people and injuring about 200.
NewsBeat
Vladimir Putin warned after Royal Navy tracks ‘spy’ ship that entered UK waters for second time in months | UK News
A Russian “spy” ship has been monitored by the Royal Navy after it entered UK waters earlier this week, the defence secretary has said – as he issued a warning to President Vladimir Putin.
The vessel, called Yantar, has been used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure, John Healey told MPs.
The UK and its NATO allies are increasingly concerned about the risk that President Putin‘s country poses to offshore cables, pipelines and other infrastructure.
Trump issues Putin ultimatum on ending Ukraine war – latest updates
Defence Secretary John Healey. Pic: PA
Mr Healey said Yantar entered the “UK exclusive economic zone about 45 miles off the British coast” on Monday.
He said that for the last two days, the Royal Navy has deployed Type 23 frigate HMS Somerset and patrol ship HMS Tyne to “monitor the vessel every minute through our waters”.
In a direct message to Mr Putin, he said: “We see you, we know what you’re doing and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country.”
Navy rules of engagement changed
The defence secretary said he changed the navy’s rules of engagement so “our warships can get closer and better track the Yantar”.
He said the ship “has complied with international rules of navigation” and has since sailed into the North Sea.
Russia has said Yantar is an oceanographic research ship which is operated by its defence ministry.
Second incident in months
Mr Healey told the House of Commons it was the second time Yantar had entered British waters in recent months, after it was detected in November “loitering over critical undersea infrastructure”.
RFA Proteus monitoring Russian ship Yanter in November 2024. Pic: Royal Navy/PA
Back then, a Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarine was used to warn off the “spy” ship.
Mr Healey added: “I authorised a Royal Navy submarine, strictly as a deterrent measure, to surface close to Yantar to make clear that we had been covertly monitoring its every move.
“The ship then left UK waters without further loitering and sailed down to the Mediterranean.”
‘Monitoring its every move’
RAF maritime patrol aircraft, minehunter HMS Cattistock, offshore patrol vessel HMS Tyne and surveillance ship RFA Proteus were also deployed “to shadow Yantar’s every movement”.
Mr Healey added: “I authorised a Royal Navy submarine, strictly as a deterrent measure, to surface close to Yantar to make clear that we had been covertly monitoring its every move.
“The ship then left UK waters without further loitering and sailed down to the Mediterranean.”
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Mr Healey warned: “Russia remains the most pressing and immediate threat to Britain, and I want to assure the House and the British people that any threat will be met with strength and resolve.”
P-8 Poseidon and Rivet Joint spy planes will join the NATO operation to protect undersea cabling in the Baltic Sea, while RFA Proteus has also been deployed to monitor offshore infrastructure.
Donald Trump has issued a fresh ultimatum to Vladimir Putin today in a bid to bring the Ukraine war to a close.
The new US President, in a direct warning to his Russian counterpart, said if a deal couldn’t be reached over the “ridiculous” invasion of Ukraine, he would be left with “no choice” but to slap Russia with a series of “taxes, tariffs and sanctions”.
Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said: “I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin – and this despite the Radical left’s Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX.
“We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process.
Donald Trump has issued a fresh ultimatum to Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war
REUTERS
“All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia – whose economy is failing – and president Putin, a very big favour.
“Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous war! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal’, and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs, and sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.
“Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with!
LATEST ON DONALD TRUMP AND VLADIMIR PUTIN:
‘Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous war! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE,’ Trump warned
REUTERS
“We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better.
“It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL’. NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!”
In response to the President-elect’s ultimatum, Russia’s deputy envoy to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said it was “not merely a question of ending the war”, rather “the question of addressing root causes of the Ukrainian crisis”.
In a swipe at Barack Obama, he added: “So we have to see what does the ‘deal’ mean in President Trump’s understanding.
“He is not responsible for what the US has been doing in Ukraine since 2014, making it ‘anti-Russia’ and preparing for the war with us, but it is in his power now to stop this malicious policy.”
In the run-up to his historic return to the White House, Trump had pledged to bring the war to a swift end
REUTERS
In the run-up to his historic return to the White House, Trump had pledged to bring the war to a swift end – in 2023, he told CNN: “If I’m president, I will have that war settled in one day… 24 hours.”
And on the campaign trail, he had suggested he could bring about peace in the interim period between winning re-election and officially returning to office.
“That is a war that’s dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become President.
“If I win, when I’m President-elect, and what I’ll do is I’ll speak to one, I’ll speak to the other, I’ll get them together,” he vowed in a debate with Kamala Harris.
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Watch again as Sir Keir Starmer faced Kemi Badenoch at Prime Minister‘s Questions on Wednesday (22 January) as the Labour leader was grilled over the Southport killings.
The prime minister was put under the spotlight after announcing a public inquiry into the Southport killings and vowing to leave no stone unturned in identifying potential failings.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, admitted on Monday to murdering three girls aged between six and nine after his frenzied knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Merseyside last year.
The then-17-year-old travelled five miles from his family home to the Hart Space, where he ambushed the youngsters. Since then, The Community Church, which his father attended, revealed the killer’s family have been moved to a secret location for their protection.
In an address to the nation on Tuesday, Sir Keir promised action to end how “shockingly easy” it is for children to buy knives, including forcing online retailers to put in place tougher checks.
Politics
Defence Manufacturers On Brink Of Administration While Waiting For Strategic Defence Review
4 min read
Small to medium sized defence manufacturers are close to falling into administration, as they wait for the publication of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR).
Defence companies had expected the government’s landmark review into the UK’s preparedness for war to be published around Easter. However, industry figures now fear the SDR will be published towards the end of the year, The Telegraph recently reported.
While the government denies there is a moratorium on procurement spend, defence manufacturers understand there to be a ‘de-facto’ freeze on the limits of capital and resource department spending until the next spending review. They believe the government is reluctant to sign off on new procurement expenditure because it wants to include announcements in its SDR.
Brad Hayward, head of commercial for a UK micro-SME defence manufacturer and chair of the ADS Defence UK SME Committee, said that the UK SME community has experienced “a highly challenging 12 months”, where the pipeline of UK defence procurement opportunities has “significantly reduced in scope and consistency”.
He added “continued pauses” brought on by events such as the general election, Autumn Budget and Strategic Defence Review have created a “continual delay in demand signals to industry”.
This has resulted in “an alarming number of organisations downsizing” in the UK, with companies either “removing themselves from the defence sector” or “liquidating entirely”.
Samira Braund, defence director of trade body ADS Group, said that a few small to medium sized defence manufacturers could “very likely” be facing administration due to cash flow issues caused by paused contracts.
Of the more than 900 British defence equipment manufacturers represented by ADS, “upwards of 30” have come to the body seeking support. Braund added that some SMEs have been awarded contracts, but these have been “put on hold” while the government waits to deliver its SDR.
“These concerns have been raised up to senior officials within the Ministry of Defence, noting a lot of our SMEs’ cash flow challenges could be three to six months, and therefore they are looking to potentially diversify or exit the market.
“That goes against all of the work that the new government and officials are trying to put in place in the SDR in creating long term demand signals.”
One defence manufacturer employing between 50 and 100 staff said that government’s decision to freeze procurement for two months last year saw “less opportunity for work”. They also claimed they are “not allowed to invoice” the Ministry of Defence for contract work immediately, but have to wait until they are told to, which can take up to four months.
“They might have 30 day payment terms, but it’s from the point we’ve been allowed to invoice,” they said. “That really hurts us badly.”
The SME added that it is resorting to “seeking finance in terms of business loans” to help the company grow, but that if they were paid on time, they would be able to use their cash reserves.
“If they don’t pay us on time, we may cease to exist. People have ceased to exist not because they’re not profitable, but rather because they’re not paid on time.”
Larger defence manufacturers have also been affected by the government’s delayed publication of its SDR, with some companies struggling to recruit staff.
Braund said that the lack of a “continuous cycle” of procurement means “highly talented people” are lost from the defence sector. “We already have at least 10,000 vacancies across our sectors, and this just exacerbates the problem,” she said.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “We do not recognise these claims. We’re continuing to invest in British businesses, including through recent contracts such as enhanced support Navy ship deployments. The timeline of the Strategic Defence Review does not prevent investment and we continue to engage closely with industry partners, including the SME community, as we develop the new Defence Industrial Strategy.
“We have a cast-iron commitment to increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP.”
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PA Media/Merseyside PoliceAxel Rudakubana did not appear out of the blue.
By the time he carried out the brutal murders of three young girls, the teenager was well known to police, anti-extremism authorities and a number of other public agencies.
But despite repeated concerns about Rudakubana’s taste for violence, there was only ever limited intervention.
The government now says several opportunities were missed to stop him turning his dark obsessions into a reality. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the state had failed.
This is what we know about his journey to becoming a killer – and whether it could have been prevented.
Early warning signs
The first serious signs Rudakubana was capable of inflicting harm date back to when he was in year nine at Range High School in Formby, Merseyside.
At the age of 11, he had appeared in a BBC Children In Need campaign video, which he had been put forward for by an acting casting agency.
But over his adolescence, Rudakubana began to exhibit anger issues and a propensity for violence. Fellow pupils remember him being obsessed with figures such as Adolf Hitler and Genghis Khan.
His time at Range High School ended in October 2019 when he took a knife into school. It would later emerge he told the Childline call centre that he did so because he had experienced racist bullying.
Rudakubana did not use the knife on that occasion but the incident was serious enough that he was permanently expelled from the school.
He returned to the school about two months later with a hockey stick and attacked another child with it. He had to be restrained by staff.
UncreditedFrom the point at which he was thrown out of Range High School, Rudakubana largely fell out of the formal education system.
Local health workers determined he had an autism spectrum disorder and he was later enrolled in two other schools for children with special needs: The Acorns School and Presfield High School & Specialist College.
He attended sixth form at the latter only for a few days and was largely dealt with by home visits. The school sometimes requested police accompany teachers when visiting his home, such were the concerns about his violent behaviour.
Lancashire Child Safeguarding Partnership said Rudakubana failed to “re-integrate” into education after his exclusion from Range High School, a situation “exacerbated by the pandemic”. His attendance, they said, was “limited”.
At around the same time it was noted Rudakubana experienced “anxiety which prevented him from leaving his home”.
On the radar
During the years in which he stopped attending school, several local agencies had various levels of contact with Rudakubana.
He was convicted of assault and referred to the youth justice service after the incident when he took a knife into school. He completed rehabilitation activities aimed at young offenders who have pleaded guilty to a first offence.
However, Lancashire Constabulary had “several” further interactions with the teenager between October 2019 and May 2022 – including four calls from his home address relating to concerns about his behaviour.
On each occasion, officers made contact with MASH – a local grouping of agencies tasked with overseeing vulnerable people in the area.
Children’s Social Care carried out an initial assessment into Rudakubana, which found social work support was not required. It recommended “early help”, which covers forms of less intensive intervention.
Contact was made with Rudakubana and his family and they were offered guidance on his “emotional wellbeing and behaviours”.
He had involvement with local mental health services but “stopped engaging” in February 2023.
A spokesperson representing local agencies said his “participation and engagement remained a challenge” throughout this period, despite the efforts of professionals to engage with him.
An independent review into whether more could have been done to intervene is under way.
Dark obsessions
Rudakubana’s twisted interest in violence began to emerge both before and after the attack in Southport on 29 July 2024.
He came to the attention of the government’s anti-extremism Prevent programme because he had expressed an interest in school shootings, the London Bridge attack, the IRA, MI5 and the Middle East.
He was referred to Prevent three times between 2019 and 2021 over concerns about his interest in violence.
The full scale of his obsessions became clearer after the attack when his home and digital devices were searched.
PA MediaPolice found his devices contained images from conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and Korea, as well as copious academic material relating to war and genocide.
His search history revealed an interest in Nazi Germany, ethnic violence in Somalia and Rwanda, and slavery.
Detectives also found an American academic study of an al-Qaeda training document, which had been downloaded at least twice since 2021.
The attack
These twisted interests provide the backdrop to the horror that would unfold on 29 July.
On 7 July, an advert was posted on Instagram advertising a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop for young children. It sold out within 11 days.
The class got under way at 10:00 BST and photos taken at the scene and reviewed by police show 26 children laughing and playing at the start of the school holidays.
At 11:10, Rudakubana left his home. His face was obscured by a hood and a surgical mask.
He was carrying a 20cm-long kitchen knife purchased on Amazon on 13 July. Police say he used encryption software to conceal his identity when he bought it.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has called it a “disgrace” that a teenager with a history of violence was able to easily acquire the blade. Amazon says it has launched an urgent investigation.
Shortly before leaving the house, Rudakubana deleted his IP address from his tablet, one of several pieces of evidence uncovered by police that revealed he took efforts to conceal his online movements. He also searched for material on the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney in April 2024.
PA MediaA taxi picked him up at 11:30 and he stayed silent throughout the journey.
He left the car without paying and made his way to a garage. The driver followed him and there was a confrontation.
When the garage owner told him to pay for his ride, Rudakubana replied: “What are you going to do about it?”
Fifteen minutes later, he was inside the dance studio and began to stab at will.
His target – the most vulnerable people in society, young children – appeared to have been chosen to create the maximum horror and disgust.
Rudakubana killed six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar. He tried to kill others by stabbing them in the back as they fled.
By 11:59 he had been arrested but said nothing when formally questioned by police.
Missed opportunities?
In the days and weeks after the Southport attack, it became clear to investigators that Rudakubana was hell-bent on creating carnage and death, fuelled by his wide-ranging obsessions with human suffering.
When police searched his home, they found a cache of weapons, including a machete, a set of arrows and a sealed box containing an unknown substance. Tests at Porton Down, the government’s biological warfare laboratory, confirmed the substance was ricin, a poison for which there is no cure. There is no evidence he ever deployed it.
It has also emerged that one week before the murders, Rudakubana tried to return to Range High School, the scene of his expulsion five years earlier.
He was wearing the same hooded sweatshirt and surgical mask he would wear during the attack the following week, but was prevented from making the journey when his father pleaded with a taxi driver not to take him.
It is not known whether Rudakubana intended to attack people that day but his movements bear a striking similarity to the events of the following week. On that second occasion, he made sure to book the taxi after leaving the house.
The amount of information known before the murders about Rudakubana’s violent obsessions has prompted serious questions over whether more could have been done to stop him – in particular, whether Prevent could have acted.
Despite the three referrals over Rudakubana, it has been established concerns about him were never escalated up the chain, meaning he was not put under enhanced monitoring.
PA MediaAn urgent Prevent review carried out over the summer found this was because, while there was evidence he had an obsession with violence, he did not appear to fit the mould of a would-be extremist.
There were no signs of any allegiance to a single cause – which is why despite pleading guilty to downloading a terror manual, his case has never been treated as a terror investigation.
His case has prompted concerns over whether Prevent is equipped to identify dangerous people who fall outside the traditional view of what constitutes an extremist.
The urgent review found that, given Rudakubana’s age and complex needs, his case should have been escalated. It concluded Prevent put too much weight on his apparent lack of adherence to a single radical ideology.
The home secretary said the “cumulative significance” of Rudakubana’s three repeat referrals was “not properly considered” by Prevent, while Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it was “clearly wrong” he was not deemed to meet the programme’s threshold for intervention.
A wider review of the Prevent programme is being carried out.
Rudakubana will be sentenced for his crimes on Thursday – but the questions posed by his descent into violence will be agonised over for years to come.
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