A headteacher today described the Southport killer as ‘sinister, unpredictable and the most unusual’ pupil she had ever encountered in her career.
Axel Rudakubana was enrolled at The Acorns School, in Ormskirk, Lancashire, aged 13, after being expelled from mainstream education for taking a knife into classes.
Headteacher Joanne Hodson told the public inquiry investigating his crimes that, from his first day, she realised the teenager was ‘very high risk’.
Ms Hodson described a ‘memorable’ first meeting when she asked Rudakubana why he had taken a knife into his previous comprehensive.
‘He looked me in the eyes and said “to use it”,’ she said. ‘This is the only time in my career that a pupil has said this to me or behaved in a manner so devoid of any remorse.’
She said she was surprised that his parents, who were also at the meeting, ‘didn’t flinch’ at that comment and simply accepted his explanation.
They believed their son was a ‘good boy’ whose bad behaviour was a consequence of him being previously bullied and his actions were ‘someone else’s fault’, Ms Hodson said.
But the teacher said she was so worried that she sent an email to all her staff saying Rudakubana needed to be regularly searched for knives because he hadn’t displayed any emotion or ‘remorse’ and was ‘very high risk’.
Axel Rudakubana was a ‘very high risk’ pupil, headteacher Joanne Hodson said
Joanne Hodson told the inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall that she was worried about Axel Rudakubana’s behaviour within weeks of him arriving at The Acorns School
Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were all murdered in the atrocity on July 29, 2024
Ms Hodson added: ‘AR (Rudakubana) was a highly unusual pupil, the most unusual I had experienced during my career.
‘At Acorns, we educate and support young people with a range of complex needs, however I’ve never come across a pupil like AR. He was incredibly difficult to read and had an unusual energy and was unpredictable.
‘There was a sinister undertone, and it was difficult to build rapport. He had no respect for authority and generally a lack of respect of other pupils and staff. He was insistent that his views alone were correct and everyone else was wrong.
‘There was never any sense of remorse or accountability for his actions. Those features are, in my view, extraordinary.’
Within a few weeks of Rudakubana’s arrival, in October 2019, Ms Hodson said his behaviour quickly became concerning.
He started looking up school shootings online, making shocking statements and threatening pupils and staff.
She said she had a ‘visceral sense of dread’ that he would ‘do something’ to one of his peers.
‘It felt like he was building up to something,’ she said. ‘I felt like something was going to happen…this kind of level of agitation and the direct challenges to staff and the direct the way he was with the other pupils, it felt like every day it was building and building and building.
‘I was aware of that he’d taken knives into school, and I was worried that he was going to bring something to our school and do something similar at our school.’
But, in the end, Rudakubana, who is being referred to at the inquiry by his initials, attacked a pupil at his former school instead.
Rudakubana outside the Hart Space dance studio, in Southport, before he launched his attack which killed three young girls
A knife identical to the one used in the attack carried out by Rudakubana at The Hart Space, in Southport, last July
He travelled to The Range High School, in Formby, on December 5, 2019, where he attacked another student with a hockey stick. He was also found with a knife in his bag.
By then The Acorns School had already referred Rudakubana to the Government’s counter-terror programme, Prevent.
The referral was formally considered on December 13, but MI5 did not believe he met the threshold for opening a Security Service investigation because no terrorist or domestic extremist ideology was identified – they then had no further involvement.
A second Prevent referral was made by the school around a year later, on February 1, 2021, over posts Rudakubana had made about Colonel Gaddafi, the former Libyan leader, on Instagram.
Then, a third referral was made a few weeks later, on April 22, 2021, when Rudakubana had webpages open about the London Bridge attack in class. He was also discussing the IRA, MI5, and the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
But each time his case wasn’t considered serious enough for further investigation and was closed.
Ms Hodson said the school did not believe it was the right place for Rudakubana from the beginning.
But even after the attack at the Range – when she hoped other agencies would step-up and help them manage the risk Rudakubana presented – she said nothing was done.
‘We were literally left holding the baby,’ Ms Hodson added.
Rudakubana was not allowed to return to The Acorns School because of the attack at The Range but, when the pandemic struck, in March 2020, no decision had been made about his future education.
He had not been to school for more than two years when he killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and attempted to murder 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29 last year.
The inquiry, at Liverpool Town Hall, continues.
