Southport child killer Axel Rudakubana‘s transfer to Broadmoor is not an ‘easy ride’ or a ‘holiday’, a former psychiatrist at the high-security hospital has insisted.
The 19-year-old triple murderer was accused of ‘manipulating the system’ after being shipped out of maximum-security HMP Belmarsh this month.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Bradley Hillier dismissed claims that Rudakubana would now have a cushier existence – despite now being treated as a patient instead of a prisoner.
And the expert, who has worked with some of Britain’s most dangerous minds, revealed that the fiend could be left facing even tighter restrictions than he endured in prison.
He said: ‘I can say for sure that there is no basis in this misperception that going from prison to hospital is like an easy ride or a light touch or a sort of holiday. It’s not.
‘It’s increasing the levels of restriction and the ability to remove rights in order to treat people because of the risks they pose.
‘It may even remove rights that somebody has when they’re in prison because there’s so much focus on risk and there’s so much scrutiny and observation.’
Rudakubana murdered Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July 2024. He also attempted to murder eight other children and two adults during his barbaric knife rampage on Merseyside.
Southport child killer Axel Rudakubana has been transferred from HMP Belmarsh to Broadmoor hospital
Rudakubana murdered Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in 2024
The teenager, from Banks, Lancashire, was incarcerated at Belmarsh after being handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 52 years.
While there, he underwent psychological assessments by experts to determine whether he is mad or bad – or both.
The transfer also followed an alleged attack in May in which a prison officer at Belmarsh was doused in scalding water.
Sources suggested Rudakubana had been ‘very keen’ on a move to Broadmoor and that he had described detention in a hospital as ‘easy street’.
The national chair of the POA union, which represents prison workers, said Rudakubana was ‘playing the system and is nothing more than evil’.
‘He should spend his entire sentence in solitary confinement staring at four walls,’ national chair Mark Fairhurst said.
However, Dr Hillier said the hospital maintains prison-level security while subjecting patients to intensive scrutiny.
He told how the facility was surrounded by towering double perimeter barriers and contained layers of locked internal walls, wards, doors and security checkpoints.
Staff and visitors must pass through enhanced checks, while mobile phones and items capable of being used as weapons are tightly controlled.
All staff carry keys and personal alarms.
Broadmoor hospital, where Rudakubana has been transferred, is a high-security psychiatric unit for adult male prisoners with severe mental disorders
Patients including notorious names such as Charles Bronson, Peter Sutcliffe and Kenneth Erskine have all spent time at the hospital
Dr Hillier said: ‘It’s not like a hospital when you go into St George’s or somewhere like that, with beds and bays and people wandering around. Broadmoor is highly, highly secure.
‘All of the wards are locked, with multiple doors and locks that you have to go through, and security procedures and checks.
‘They are not going into a hospital and walking around and being able to do what they want. There are lots of things that you’re not allowed to take in, just like a prison because they’re high-risk items.
‘People don’t have phones in there and people don’t have anything that you could use as a weapon, and you go through a level of security just like when you go into a prison.
‘It’s like going through security at an airport but enhanced.’
Broadmoor is one of only three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, alongside Ashworth on Merseyside and Rampton in Nottinghamshire.
Everyone at these facilities is detained under the Mental Health Act and cannot leave freely.
Prisoners are generally transferred only when doctors determine that their illness cannot be adequately treated behind bars.
This can include cases in which a prisoner is severely unwell, poses a danger to himself or others, or requires medication administered against his wishes.
Dr Hillier said: ‘The usual reason is because their mental illness can’t be treated in prison.
‘They may be harming themselves or others, or be at high risk of doing that.
‘It is giving somebody treatment under the Mental Health Act in a very secure environment because they cannot be allowed to escape, and that’s the reason that high security hospitals exist.’
Dr Bradley Hillier, a consultant psychiatrist, said Broadmoor would be no ‘holiday’ for Rudakubana
Rudakubana is expected to face a detailed assessment before doctors decide how he should be housed and treated.
He could initially be placed in seclusion, with staff closely monitoring his movements, behaviour and contact with others.
A former senior member of staff at high-security NHS psychiatric hospitals said patients in seclusion could be watched constantly, with formal checks every 15 minutes throughout the day and night.
‘Officially, nobody says a patient is going into seclusion for years,’ the former employee said.
‘But in reality, some of them do remain there for years.
‘People would be horrified at how long seclusion can go on. I saw men who were meant to be there temporarily end up staying in seclusion for decades.’
The former worker said Rudakubana could remain under the most restrictive conditions for as long as doctors believed he posed a serious danger.
‘The day is stripped down to the absolute minimum,’ the source said.
‘Everything depends on risk – risk to staff, risk to other patients and risk to himself.’
Only if Rudakubana responds to treatment and is judged to pose a reduced threat could he gradually be granted access to Broadmoor’s wider facilities.
Patients considered stable enough can follow a structured daily routine involving education, work placements, cookery, metalwork, woodwork, exercise and supervised leisure activities.
Approved patients may have physical contact with visiting relatives, including hugging them, holding hands and posing for photographs.
But any such privileges would depend on repeated risk assessments and are strictly monitored.
‘If his mental state improved and the risk reduced, then in theory he could move into more normal conditions.
‘But it would surprise me to see that ever happen,’ the former staff member said.
Broadmoor has previously housed the likes of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, who was sent there in 1984, Ronnie Kray, Charles Bronson and Robert Maudsley.
Reggie Kray (left), pictured with his elder brother Charlie and twin Ronnie, was housed at Broadmoor
The facility, which opened in 1863 as the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, is based near the affluent village of Crowthorne.
Dr Hillier said Broadmoor staff would already have procedures to deal with the intense attention surrounding Rudakubana.
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Asked whether Rudakubana could have a target on his back because of the nature of his crimes, Dr Hillier said it was a possibility.
‘It is a potential situation with any high-profile individual, whether they’re in prison or in a secure hospital.
‘If somebody is a high-profile person, then there’s a risk associated with that because people may try and gain access to the treating team, for example, and try and get information and things like that.’
But he added: ‘Broadmoor is very familiar with having procedures about ensuring that these risks are managed for every patient.
‘This particular plan will not be something Broadmoor has not dealt with before, in terms of the potential risks, the profile and the emotive nature of his offences.’
The move to psychiatric care has provoked fury among those representing the families of Rudakubana’s victims. The cost to the taxpayer could stretch to an eye-watering £300,000 a year.
Chris Walker, a lawyer for the three bereaved families, suggested Rudakubana could be attempting to ‘manipulate the system’.
‘We do have an evil person but being evil does not mean that you’re suffering with psychosis of some sort,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘We need to know is this a single event, is this a recurring event, is this him playing the system and we need those answers.’
Mr Walker said the families had received only the ‘barest of details’ and were urgently seeking a meeting with ministers and officials.
He said the timing of the transfer, days before the second anniversary of the attack, would further devastate them.
Patients’ kitchen inside Broadmoor hospital shows off a modest series of tables, chairs and a sink area – plus pin-ups on the wall
Former CPS chief crown prosecutor Nazir Afzal said of Rudakubana’s transfer on social media: ‘Broadmoor is a high security prison with pills, a place where every move is observed and every decision controlled.
‘It houses murderers including Sutcliffe who killed 13 women. There are only two exits, back to prison or a coffin. It is as far from an easy option as some are from the truth.’
Before Rudakubana was sentenced in January 2025, his barrister told the court there was no psychiatric evidence showing that a mental disorder had contributed to his crimes.
The court heard that he had autism without associated learning disabilities and had been found mentally fit to be prosecuted.
Because he pleaded guilty shortly before his trial, his mental health was not examined in detail before a jury.
Sentencing him, Mr Justice Goose said Rudakubana had a ‘settled and determined intention’ to carry out the attack.
The judge said he would have killed all 26 children at the dance class, as well as any adults who tried to stop him, had he been able to do so.
The Southport Public Inquiry has since heard evidence about Rudakubana’s previous dealings with mental health, education and safeguarding services.
He was under the care of Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust between 2019 and 2023, when he stopped engaging with its mental health service.
One senior clinician told the inquiry that his lack of empathy, fascination with violence and neurodiversity had created a ‘really toxic mix’.
He had also been referred to the Government’s Prevent counter-terrorism programme three times, although officials found no evidence that he followed a fixed ideology.
The Southport child killer had been held at the high-security HMP Belmarsh, which previously housed Soham killer Ian Huntley and the murderer of soldier Lee Rigby
Rudakubana’s transfer does not change his life sentence. He has not been given a hospital order and must be returned to prison once doctors decide that he no longer requires treatment at Broadmoor.
The Ministry of Justice said the decision was based on independent clinical assessments carried out under the Mental Health Act.
A spokesman said: ‘Any decision to transfer an offender is made following an independent, clinical assessment, under the Mental Health Act.
‘Following rigorous security checks, the offender has been transferred to a high-security psychiatric unit, where he will remain until assessed fit to return to prison.’
Dr Hillier said doctors were required to treat patients based on their medical needs, regardless of the horror of their crimes.
He added: ‘While we may not be approving of what they’ve done or wanting to give them any easier time, there is a basic human element of treating somebody who is ill, getting them better and then sending them back to prison.’
However, he stressed that the victims and their families must remain at the centre of the authorities’ concerns.
‘We also must remember about the victims and victims’ families when we make these decisions. No one can ever know what it must feel like to lose a child in that way. It has been devastating, devastating.
‘I hope the NHS and services are also there for those families.’
The Ministry of Justice stressed that Broadmoor should not be viewed as a softer option.
A spokesman said: ‘The families of those murdered and injured in Southport will be in this country’s heart forever and our thoughts remain with them.
‘The offender who carried out these vile crimes will rightly spend the entirety of his 52-year custodial sentence locked up, and is unlikely to ever be released.
‘High secure hospitals are not places of freedom. He will remain under constant supervision in a high-security psychiatric unit, and be returned to prison as soon as possible.
‘The transfer of an offender follows a robust independent clinical assessment.’
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